Division  TBSZ.'^Z 

.A  62 


Section 


AN  INTRODUCTIONVx!:. 


THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS 


AN  INVESTIGATION  OF    THE 
HISTORICAL  SOURCES 


1/ 
ALFRED  WILLIAMS  ANTHONY 

Professor  of  Nbw  Testament  Exegesis  and  Ckiticism, 
Cobb  Divinity  School 


SILVER,  BURDETT  AND  COMPANY 

New  York         BOSTON        Chicago 
1899 


Copyright,  1896, 
By  Silver,  Burdbtt,  and  Company. 


TYPOGRAPHY   BY   C.    J.    PBTBRS   <c   SON,    BOSTON. 
PRESSWORK    BY    BERWICK   &   SMITH. 


^ 


TO 

The  Memory  of  My  Mother. 


PREFACE. 


The  reign  of  facts  is  more  extensive  to-day 
than  ever  before.  Fewer  people  do  homage  to 
theories  ;  fewer  are  charmed  by  mystery.  Sci- 
ence has  descended  from  the  airy  conjectures  of 
hasty  generahzation,  and  seeks  now  the  solid 
ground  of  ascertained  fact.  The  deductive 
method  has  yielded  to  the  inductive,  with  an 
immense  gain  to  calm  reason  and  assured 
knowledge. 

Religious  inquiry  experiences  the  same  ten- 
dency. Dogmatism  and  speculation  have  had 
their  day.  Faith  lays  hold  of  and  employs  fact 
with  an  ever-increasing  devotion.  The  church 
knows  it  ;  theology  shows  it.  What  is  truth .-' 
The  world  awaits  the  answer,  and  stands  ready 
to  give  allegiance  to  the  truth. 

In  the  new  spirit  the  modern  Christian  tests 

his  creed.     An  heirloom  may  be  a  curiosity,  but 

he  will  not  use  it.      He  builds  anew.     "  Back  to 

Christ  "  is  the  cry  of  those  who  lay  bare  the 

3 


4  PREFACE. 

foundations  for  the  latest  statement  of  Christian 
faith.  What  is  solid  ?  What  is  durable  ?  What 
are  the  facts  ?     What  is  truth  ? 

This  book  is  an  essay  in  historical  criticism. 
It  is  an  "  introduction "  in  the  limited  sense 
suggested  by  Schleiermacher  sixty  years  ago, 
which  but  recently  has  come  into  general  use. 
It  does  not  theorize  about  the  facts  of  the  life 
of  Jesus,  nor  try  to  account  for,  nor  explain 
them  ;  it  does  not  describe  the  circumstances 
under  which  the  facts  are  alleged  to  have  taken 
place,  nor  the  results  which  they  will  accom- 
plish ;  nor  does  it  set  forth  in  detail  the  facts 
themselves ;  it  simply  introduces  the  reader  to 
the  sources  which  contain  these  facts  of  the 
life  of  Jesus.  It  indicates  the  first  step  for 
an  intelligent  knowledge  of  that  life. 

In  scope  and  plan  these  pages  are  designed 
for  use  in  classes  both  of  the  Sunday-school  and 
the  seminary.  The  statements,  it  is  believed, 
are  direct  and  simple  enough  for  adult  pupils  in 
the  one,  and  at  the  same  time  are  sufficiently 
precise  and  comprehensive  for  the  students  of  the 
other.  The  advanced  student  will  find  in  the 
notes  a  clew  to  a  considerable  bibliography  of 
the  subjects  treated,  by  means  of  which  he  is 
recommended  to  pursue  his  investigations  still 
further.     To  aid  him  in  preserving  notes  and 


PREFACE. 


references,  a  somewhat  wider  margin  than  usual 
has  been  given  to  the  page. 

The  synoptic  problem  has  long  been  one  of 
the  most  difficult  in  connection  with  the  study 
of  the  New  Testament.  In  relation  to  it,  there 
has  never  been  unanimity  of  opinion  amongst 
scholars.  In  Chapter  XIV.  the  author  lays 
anew  the  emphasis  upon  historic  data,  and  ven- 
tures to  maintain  that  the  line  of  least  resist- 
ance for  the  solution  of  this  intricate  problem 
begins  upon  the  path  of  historic  inquiry. 

While  not  conceived  in  the  apologetic  mood, 
nor  executed  in  support  of  a  foregone  conclu- 
sion, this  book,  it  is  believed,  will  be  found  an 
aid  to  faith  and  a  contribution  to  the  historic 
evidences  of  Christianity.  If  it  can  give  this 
aid,  and  make  this  contribution,  it  will  thus  far 
accomplish  the  purposes  of  Him  who  prompts 
his  children  to  their  tasks. 

A.  w.  A. 

Lewiston,  Me.,  May  25,  1S96. 


contp:nts. 


I.     Object  and  Method o 

HEATHEN  SOURCES: 
II.     Direct  Witnesses lo 

III.  Quoted  Witnesses ,2 

JEiyiSH  SOURCES: 

IV.  Jkvvish  Sources ,. 

CHRISTIAN  SOURCES: 

V.  The  Catacomus 61 

VI.     The  Apocryphal  New  Testament  Wriiings,       66 

VII.     Extka-Biblical  Sayings  of  Jesus     ....       72 
VIII.     Gospels,    once    Current,    now     Lost,    and 
known    only  through  Fragmentary    Re- 
mains AND   Citations   in    Ancient    Docu- 
ments      S3 

IX.     The  Church  Fathers 96 

X.     The  Epistles  of  Paul 104 

XI.     The  Gospels;  Their  General  Character     .     109 
XII.     Are  the  Gospels  Historic  Documents?  .     .     116 

XIII.  The  Gospels;  the  Time  of  Their  Composi- 

tion   ,25 

XIV.  The  Synoptic  Problem 152 

XV.     The  Johannine  Problem 177 

XVI.     A  General  View  of  the  Sources    ....     193 

7 


AN  INTRODUCTION  TO  THE 
LIFE  OF  JESUS. 


CHAPTER    I. 

THE    OBJECT    AND    METHOD. 

It  is  reported  that  Napoleon  once  asked 
Herder,  the  German  philosopher,  whether  Jesus 
Christ  ever  lived  at  all.  In  later  life  the  great 
warrior  answered  his  own  question  affirmatively 
with  emphasis.^  But  modern  Napoleons  —  for 
we  are  all  world-conquerors  in  our  own  spheres 
—  put  the  same  question  to  their  Herders : 
What  proves  the  life  of  Christ  .-*  It  is  not 
enough  to  cite  authorities.^     Every  inquirer  is 

1  See  "  Testimony  of  Napoleon  I.  with  Regard  to  Christ,"  by  Rev. 
Alexander  Mair,  D.D.,  in  The  Expositor,  4th  Series,  vol.  i.,  p.  366 ; 
also  Schaff's  History  of  the  Christian  Church,  vol.  i.,  p.  57. 

2  Authority  is,  however,  clear  and  decisive.  Rev.  J.  H.  W. 
Stuckenberg,  D.D.,  recently  pastor  of  the  American  Church  in  Berlin, 
in  his  lectures  at  Yale  Divinity  School,  1S92,  on  "  The  ReHgious  and 
Theological  Conditions  in  Germany,"  is  reported  as  saying,  "  It  is 
now  admitted  by  all  parties,  on  all  sides,  that  we  have  the  genuine 
words  of  Christ  and  his  apostles.  There  is  no  longer  doubt  as  to  the 
character  of  his  fundamental  teachings."  This  he  says  referring  to 
German  authorities. 

9 


10      INTRODUCTION   TO   THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS. 

a  thinker.  He  demands  evidence.  What  has 
satisfied  one  jury  may  not  satisfy  his  judgment ; 
to  know  that  another  mind  has  been  convinced 
does  not  convince  his.  He  must  have  the  tes- 
timony for  himself,  and  must  weigh  it  for 
himself. 

This  book  is  an  attempt  to  present  the  doc- 
umentary evidence  for  the  existence  of  Jesus 
Christ  on  earth,  and  to  show  the  sources  whence 
a  description  of  that  life  may  be  drawn.  It  does 
not  inquire  into  the  philosophy  of  religion.  A 
scientific  discussion  of  miracles,  or  of  other  re- 
corded superhuman  characteristics  of  Christian- 
ity, it  does  not  raise.  Assuming  the  validity  of 
human  testimony,  it  endeavors  to  present  that 
testimony  as  it  is.  Who  are  the  witnesses .-' 
and  what  is  their  testimony .-'  are  the  questions 
which  it  undertakes  to  answer. 

A  man  may  summon  his  own  consciousness 
as  a  witness,  appealing  to  his  own  rational  and 
spiritual  nature :  Do  the  facts  here  recorded 
commend  themselves  as  reasonable,  probable, 
beneficial,  and  satisfactory  to  my  needs  and  to 
the  world's  needs,  as  through  myself  I  know 
human  nature  .-*  This  subjective  appeal  to  self- 
consciousness  is  one  of  the  most  assuring ;  it 
is,  indeed,  the  final  court  of  appeal.  All  other 
varieties  of  evidence  are  referred  to  this  judge, 


THE   OBJECT   AND   METHOD.  11 

self.  Even  in  choosing  authorities  who  shall 
think  for  us,  the  appeal  to  self-judgment  is  quite 
as  complete,  and  the  difficulty  of  selecting  the 
thinker  quite  as  nice — as  the  genial  Autocrat 
of  the  Breakfast  Table  ^  has  pointed  out  —  as 
to  think  for  one's  self.  And  yet  this  book  does 
not  attempt  to  enter  the  domain  of  natural  re- 
ligion, or  to  discuss  the  psychology  of  belief,  or 
the  contents  of  the  so-called  Chri.stian  conscious- 
ness. Our  inquiries  shall  be  purely  historical, 
and  at  first  wholly  outside  of  the  Bible. 

One  line  of  historical  investigation  we  shall, 
however,  purposely  omit.  We  shall  not  cate- 
chize the  institutions  which  have  come  to  us 
from  the  past,  nor  the  events  of  history,  nor 
the  streams  of  progress  flowing  through  our 
day.  The  evidence  of  religious  and  secular 
history  to  Christ  is,  it  can  safely  be  claimed, 
overwhelming.  In  his  name  men  have,  to  use 
the  language  of  Holy  Writ  (Heb.  xi  :  33,  34), 
"  subdued  kingdoms,  wrought  righteousness,  ob- 
tained promises,  stopped  the  mouths  of  lions, 
quenched  the  power  of  fire,  escaped  the  edge 
of  the  sword,  from  weakness  were  made  strong, 
waxed  mighty  in  war,  turned  to  flight  armies  of 
aliens."  The  achievements  of  the  apostles,  the 
increase  of  a  handful  to  four  hundred  and  fifty- 

1  Riverside  Edition,  p.  15. 


12      INTRODUCTION   TO   THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS. 

two  millions^  of  disciples,  the  remarkable  con- 
tinuance in  the  face  of  all  rnanner  of  opposition 
and,  despite  the  opposition,  the  growth  of  the 
church,  particularly  in  this  century  of  mission- 
ary enterprise,  —  these  are  phenomena  in  the 
history  of  Christianity,  which,  originating  with 
the  life  of  Jesus  Christ  on  earth,  and  drawing 
their  inspiration  from  him,  attest  unmistakably 
the  actuality  of  that  life,  and  its  more  than  hu- 
man character.  It  certainly  is  unique.  No 
other  being  on  earth  has  thus  affected  earth's 
institutions,  events,  and  history.  Under  the 
influence  of  his  name  and  nature  barbarous 
races  have  become  civilized  ;  cruelties  toward 
the  infirm,  the  poor,  children,  and  prisoners, 
both  of  war  and  peace,  have  been  assuaged  ; 
slaves  have  been  manumitted,  woman  elevated, 
and  the  whole  estate  of  human  nature  raised 
by  mollifying  and  refining  forces.  Such  works 
as  Storrs's  The  Divine  Origin  of  Christianity 
Indicated  by  its  Historical  Effects,  Brace's  Gesta 
Christi:  a  History  of  Humane  Progress,  Uhl- 
horn's  The  Conflict  of  CJiristianity  with  Heathen- 
ism, Farrar's  The  Witness  of  History  to  Christ, 
Professor  Schmidt's  The  Social  Results  of  Early 

1  The  estimate  of  Christians  in  the  world,  based  upon  enumera- 
tions of  1885,  given  in  the  table  appended  to  Zdckler's  Handbuch  der 
Theologischen  Wissenschaften,  1889. 


THE  OBJECT  AND   METHOD.  13 

Christianity,  and  President  David  J.  Hill's  'J7ie 
Social  Influence  of  Christianity,  carry  conviction 
to  a  candid  mind.  Indeed,  a  thoughtful,  dis- 
cerning perusal  of  history  discloses  the  superhu- 
man character  of  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ, 
and  furnishes  the  mind  with  ample  credence 
for  the  modest  facts  recorded  in  the  Gospels 
of  that  marvellous  life.  Even  in  that  famous 
fifteenth  chapter  of  Gibbon's  History  of  the  De- 
cline and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire,  in  which 
the  learned  author,  with  the  spirit  of  an  advo- 
cate, tries  to  minimize  the  divine  character  of 
the  five  causes  which  he  adduces  to  account 
for  the  remarkable  spread  of  Christianity,  one 
nevertheless  discovers  recorded  an  energy  and 
power  far  in  excess  of  the  mere  human  causes 
there  enumerated.  Other  propagandists  and 
sectaries  have  had  zeal,  have  taught  the  im- 
mortality of  the  soul,  have  wrought  marvellous 
deeds,  exemplified  untarnished  personal  virtues, 
and  have  practised  practical  fraternity  in  the 
administration  of  affairs ;  but  none  have  done 
what  Christians  have  done,  conquered  the  world. 
The  divine  always  succeeds,  not  in  an  hour, 
perhaps,  nor  in  a  day,  but  eventually,  through 
the  lapse  of  centuries.  Are  not  at  least  thirty- 
four  centuries  sufficient  to  test  the  permanency 
of  this  success,  fifteen  centuries  of  preparation 


14      INTRODUCTION   TO    THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS. 

and  nineteen  centuries  of  fulfilment  ?  The 
claims  of  Christianity  have  been  tossed  about, 
turned,  pried  into,  analyzed,  weighed,  balanced, 
subjected  to  every  sort  of  speculation  and  hy- 
pothesis ;  yet  they  sur^-ive,  not  weakened,  but 
veritably  confirmed.  Where  can  stronger  at- 
testation be  found  that  this  life  and  its  effects 
are  divine  ? 

This  line  of  inquiry,  however,  though  so  at- 
tractive and  so  valuable,  we  turn  from,  as  aside 
from  our  immediate  purpose.  Of  historical 
evidence  we  shall  examine  the  documentary 
alone.  These  documentary  witnesses  from  the 
past  are  naturally  threefold,  —  the  heathen  or 
secular,  the  Jewish,  and  the  Christian.^ 

Heathen  testimony  is  the  testimony  of  his- 
torians and  other  writers  of  Greece  and  Rome, 
who  mention  Christ  or  Christianity  because, 
with  other  facts,  these  subjects  come  naturally 
within  the  range  of  their  vision.  In  some  cases 
the  writers  of  this  class  are  avowed  disbelievers, 
who  in  their  antagonism  to  Christianity  give, 
nevertheless,  though  unwittingly  and  unwill- 
ingly, more  convincing  proof  of  the  facts  which 
they  try  to  overthrow.  Every  thoughtful  per- 
son turns  at  some  time,  perhaps  scarcely  real- 

1  Dean  Farrar  emplo3-s  these  dinsions  in  his  article  '•  Jesus 
Christ,"  Encyc.  Brit.,  vol.  xiii.,  p.  657. 


THE  OBJECT  AND   METHOD.  15 

izing  it,  to  this  class  of  testimony,  wondering 
if,  were  the  church,  the  Bible,  and  special  advo- 
cates all  to  be  swept  out  of  existence,  there 
would  still  be  left  in  the  world  sufficient  evi- 
dence to  establish  the  fact  of  Jesus  Christ's 
life  on  earth,  and  the  essential  features  of  that 
life  as  we  know  it.  What  do  secular  writers, 
contemporary  or  nearly  contemporary  with 
Jesus,  say  concerning  his  life  ?  This  is  our 
first  inquiry. 

A  portion  of  the  Jewish  writings,  the  Old 
Testament,  belongs  to  our  Bible.  But  are  there 
no  other  documents  from  Jewish  hands  shed- 
ding light  upon  the  life  of  Him  who  was 
foretold  in  the  Old  Testament  .-*  There  are 
Talmudic  writings  ;  there  are  also  writings  of 
Jewish  philosophers  and  Jewish  historians  of 
Christ's  day.  We  cannot  expect  from  these 
eulogies  or  extended  notices,  we  may  even  look 
for  hatred  and  animosity  ;  but  we  may  surely 
expect  some  mention  of  Him  who  so  strangely 
came  to  their  nation  and  their  folk.  Are  they 
silent .''     This  is  our  second  inquiry. 

When  a  Roman,  a  Greek,  or  a  Jew  believes 
in  Christ,  he  then  becomes  a  Christian,  and  his 
testimony  helps  to  swell  the  abundance  included 
in  our  third  class.  Because  he  has  become  a 
Christian  is  no  good  reason  why  his  testimony 


16      INTRODUCTION   TO    THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS. 

as  to  matters  of  fact  should  be  deemed  any  less 
trustworthy  than  if  he  had  remained  merely 
a  Roman,  a  Greek,  or  a  Jew  ;  he  is  the  same 
man,  his  change  in  convictions  surely  has  not 
impaired  his  eyes  for  seeing,  nor  his  ears  for 
hearing  facts.  Why  should  it  be  thought  that 
conversion  to  belief  in  the  matters  involved 
necessarily  vitiates  a  man's  testimony  ?  Such, 
however,  is  the  practical  conclusion  of  many 
critics.  It  is  fashionable  to  discredit  the  testi- 
mony of  a  friend,  as  though  it  must  be  partisan, 
and  therefore  untrue.  But  that  hostility  of 
mind  has  its  bias  and  inevitable  tendency  to 
belittle  and  minimize,  quite  as  much  as  friend- 
liness and  partisanship  have  to  enlarge  and 
exaggerate,  all  must  allow.  Is  not,  however, 
that  Roman,  Greek,  or  Jew,  who  by  the  un- 
equivocal influence  of  Christian  truth  upon  his 
soul  has  been  won  from  his  inherited  and  in- 
tensified religious  convictions  to  accept  the  new 
faith,  the  better  able,  from  the  very  experience 
of  his  transition,  to  give  an  unbiased,  candid 
statement  of  the  facts  he  has  learned,  which 
have  had  such  weight  with  him  as  to  overcome 
his  prejudices  }  It  is  not  necessary  to  be  un- 
friendly to  phenomena  in  order  to  speak  truth- 
fully concerning  them.  Indeed,  the  scientific 
expert,  whose  testimony   is   received   with    the 


THE   OBJECT  ^ND   METHOD.  17 

greatest  weight  in  courts  of  law,  is  a  partisan 
in  the  sense  that  he  is  most  intimate  with  the 
facts  concerning  which  he  has  been  called  in 
to  give  his  opinion,  and  has  devoted  his  life 
to  seeking  a  perfect  knowledge  of  them.^  It  is 
untrue  to  experience,  and  illogical,  to  be  sus- 
picious of  testimony  concerning  Christianity 
merely  because  it  is  from  Christian  sources.^ 

Christian  testimony  to  Christ  is  abundant. 
We  cannot  expect  to  examine  it  all.  Yet  we 
may  inspect  its  varieties,  and  the  general  char- 
acter of  each  variety,  sufficiently  to  put  us  in 
possession  of  the  mass  of  evidence  in  the  case. 
For  convenience  this  class  of  evidence  may  be 
examined  in  the  following  order  :  — 

a.    The  Catacombs. 

d.  The  so-called  Apocryphal  New  Testament 
Writings. 

c.  Extra-Biblical  Sayings  of  Jesus. 

d.  Gospels  once  current,  now  lost,  and  known 
only  tlirough  fragmentary  citations  in  ancient 
documents. 

1  See  Archdeacon  Watkins  on  this  subject  in  his  Bampton  Lec- 
tures for  1S90,  "  Modern  Criticism  and  the  Fourth  Gospel,"  pp.  7-17- 

2  Origen  puts  the  case  pertinently :  "  Why  should  not  those  state- 
ments rather  be  regarded  as  inventions  which  proceeded  from  a  spirit 
of  hatred  and  hostility  against  Jesus  and  the  Christians  ?  and  these 
the  truth,  which  proceed  from  those  who  manifest  the  sincerity  of 
their  feelings  toward  Jesus  by  enduring  everything,  whatever  it  may 
be,  for  the  sake  of  his  words  ? "     Against  Cclsus,  Bk.  II.,  chap.  x. 


18      INTRODUCTION    TO    THE  LIFE   OF  JESUS. 

e.    The  Church  Fathers. 
f.    The  New  Testament. 

In  the  New  Testament  we  will  scrutinize  first 
the  epistles  of  Paul,  particularly  his  four  great 
epistles,  to  the  Romans,  to  the  Galatians,  and 
to  the  Corinthians ;  and  then  the  Gospels.  We 
must  recognize  the  general  character  of  the 
Gospels,  and  the  light  in  which  they  should  be 
studied,  as  purely  historical  or  as  peculiarly  in- 
spired documents.  An  inquiry  into  the  relation 
of  the  first  three  Gospels  to  the  fourth  and  to 
each  other  is  also  necessary.^ 

1  It  will  be  observed  that,  in  keeping  with  a  purely  historical 
spirit,  the  internal  evidence  to  the  Gospels  is  not  set  forth  in  this 
volume.  Internal  evidence  appeals  more  to  subjective  judgment  than 
does  external  evidence.  This  book  attempts  to  set  forth  the  external, 
objective  evidence,  as  found  in  documents,  and  limits  itself  to  that 
task. 


CHAPTER    II. 

THE    HEATHEN    SOURCES DIRECT    WITNESSES. 

Professor  Weiss  begins  his  life  of  Christ 
with  a  reference  to  the  testimony  of  Tacitus 
to  Christ.i  No  history  of  the  church  could  he 
intelligently  written  without  employing  the 
information  which  Tacitus  gives  concerning 
Christianity.  Tacitus  was  a  Roman  histo- 
rian, born  between  a.d.  52  and  a.d.  54,  who 
died  between  a.d.  115  and  a.d.  117.  In  his 
A/iua/s  he  wrote  :  — 

"  He  [Nero]  indicted  tlic  most  exquisite  torture  upon 
those  men  who,  under  the  vulgar  appellation  of  Chris- 
tians, were  already  branded  with  deserved  infamy.  They 
derived  their  name  and  origin  from  one  Christ,  who  in 
the  reign  of  Tiberius  had  suffered  death  by  the  sentence 
of  the  procurator,  Pontius  Pilate.  For  a  while  this  dire 
superstition  was  checked;  but  it  again  burst  forth,  and 
not  only  spread  itself  over  Judea,  the  first  seat  of  this 
mischievous  sect,  but  was  even  introduced  into  Rome,  the 
common  asylum  which  receives  and  protects  whatever  is 
impure,  whatever  is  atrocious.  The  confessions  of  those 
who  were  seized  discovered  a  great  multitude  of  their  ac- 
complices ;  and  they  were  all  convicted,  not  so  much  for 
the  crime  of  setting  fire  to  the  city,  as  for  their  hatred  of 

1  Bernhard  Weiss,  Lebenjesu,  vol.  i.,  p.  3. 
19 


20      INTRODUCTION   TO    THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS. 

humankind.  They  died  in  torments,  and  their  torments 
were  embittered  by  insult  and  derision.  Some  were  nailed 
on  crosses ;  others  sewn  up  in  the  skins  of  wild  beasts, 
and  exposed  to  the  fury  of  dogs  ;  others  again,  smeared 
over  with  combustible  materials,  were  used  as  torches  to 
illuminate  the  darkness  of  the  night.  The  gardens  of 
Nero  were  destined  for  the  melancholy  spectacle,  which 
was  accompanied  with  a  horse-race,  and  honored  with  the 
presence  of  the  emperor,  who  mingled  with  the  populace 
in  the  dress  of  a  charioteer.  The  guilt  of  the  Christians 
deserved,  indeed,  the  most  exemplary  punishment ;  but 
the  public  abhorrence  was  changed  into  commiseration, 
from  the  opinion  that  those  unhappy  wretches  were  sacri- 
ficed, not  so  much  to  the  public  welfare,  as  to  the  cruelty 
of  a  jealous  tyrant."  i 

The  burning  of  Rome  here  referred  to  took 
place  in  a.d.  64.  Tacitus  was  then  a  boy. 
From  other  sources  ^  we  are  informed  that  not 
far  from  this  time  the  Apostle  Paul  was  mar- 
tyred by  the  same  cruel  Nero  who  had  taken 
delight  in  the  diabolical  tortures  inflicted  upon 
the  Christians. 

The  truthfulness  of  this  passage  from  Tacitus 

1  The  Anna/es,  xv,,  44.  This  translation  is  from  Wheeler's 
T/ie  Course  of  Empire^  p.  129. 

2  Clement  of  Rome,  To  the  Corinthians,  chap.  v. ;  Irenseus, 
Against  Heresies,  Bk.  III.,  chap.  i. ;  Tertulhan,  Apology,  chap,  v., 
Scorpions,  chap.  xv. ;  Eusebius,  Church  History,  Bk.  II.,  chaps,  xxii., 
XXV.  Conybeare  and  Howson,  Life  and  Letters  of  St.  Paul,  vol.  ii., 
p.  4S6,  note  I,  say  :  "  Nero's  death  occurred  in  June,  a.d.  68.  Accept- 
ing, therefore,  as  we  do,  the  universal  tradition  that  St.  Paul  was 
executed  in  the  reign  of  Nero,  his  execution  must  have  taken  place 
not  later  than  the  beginning  of  June." 


HEATHEN  SOURCES  — DIRECT   IVITN ESSES.      21 

has  never  been  impugned.  GiI)bon  defends  it 
as  historically  accurate.^  It  tells  little  about 
Jesus  Christ,  but  what  it  does  record  is  signifi- 
cant in  its  confirmation  of  the  New  Testament 
narrative.  Were  there  no  New  Testatnent  and 
no  church  and  no  Christians,  yet  from  the  tes- 
timony of  Tacitus,  "who,"  it  has  been  said,^ 
"  ranks  beyond  dispute  in  the  highest  place 
among  men  of  letters  of  all  ages,"  we  still 
should  know  that  in  the  reign  of  Tiberius 
there  had  been  put  to  death  a  man  of  Judea, 
whose  influence  had  been  such  that  multitudes 
had  taken  his  name,  and,  spreading  throughout 
the  then  known  world,  persecuted  and  tortured, 
met  death,  bearing  still  that  name. 

Pliny,  who  lived  between  a.d.  6i  and  about 
A.D.  1 1 5,  was  propraetor  of  Bithynia  and  Pon- 
tica,  provinces  of  northern  Asia  Minor,  between 
A.D.  no  and  A.D.  115,  and  while  in  this  office 
wrote  frequent  letters  to  his  emperor,  Trajan, 
with  whom  he  was  on  terms  of  intimate  ac- 
quaintance. Pliny  was  a  man  of  refined  nature 
and  noble  character.  Some  of  his  sentiments 
recorded  in  his  letters  not  only  acquaint  us 
with  a  man  of  strong  and  lovable  personal 
virtues,  but  also  set  us  a  worthy  example  for 

1  Milman's  Gibbon,  vol.  i.,  p.  600  sq. 

2  Rev.  \V.  J.  Brodribb,  M.A.,  in  Encyc.  Brit.,  vol.  xxiii.,  p.  19. 


09 


INTRODUCTION    TO    THE  LIFE   OF  JESUS. 


imitation.  In  one  passage  ^  he  gives  as  his 
motto,  "  To  pardon  others  as  if  one  daily  needed 
pardon,  and  to  abstain  from  sins  as  if  one 
viewed  sin  as  unpardonable."  In  another  2  he 
says,  "  To  me  it  seems  primarily  important  to 
practise  justice,  as  away  from  home  so  at  home, 
as  in  great  things  so  in  small,  as  in  others' 
affairs  so  in  one's  own." 

This  man  in  the  discharge  of  the  duties  of 
his  office  is  confronted  with  a  sect  of  people, 
who,  though  hated  by  their  neighbors  and  ar- 
raigned on  charges  of  various  misdemeanors, 
seem  to  him  harmless,  unless  the  secret  meet- 
ings which  they  were  said  to  hold  were  places 
of  intrigue  and  treason  against  the  government. 
Of  this  he  cannot  be  sure.  The  public  clamor 
against  these  people  is  great.  In  his  perplexity 
as  to  his  duty  in  the  premises  Pliny  pens  a  let- 
ter to  the  emperor.      It  reads  as  follows  :  — 

"  My  custom  it  is.  Sire,  to  refer  to  you  everything  con- 
cerning which  I  am  in  doubt.  For  who  can  better  govern 
my  hesitancy  or  enlighten  my  ignorance  ?  At  the  exami- 
nation of  Christians  I  have  never  been  present,  and  so  I 
do  not  know  in  what  direction  and  to  what  extent  it  is 
customary  to  inflict  either  punishment  or  torture.  I  have 
been  to  no  small  degree  perplexed  whether  there  should 
be  regard  for  ages,  or  whether,  whoever  may  be  arrested, 
the  weaker  and  younger  shall  receive  no  different  treatment 

1  Eptstles,  viii.,  22.  2  Hid.,  2. 


HEATHBN  SOURCES— DIRBCT   IVITNFSSES.      23 

from  the  more  robust ;  w  hetlier  pardon  is  to  he  granted 
to  those  who  renounce,  or  whether  renunciation  is  of  no 
avail  to  those  who  have  once  been  Christians ;  whether 
the  name  itself,  though  without  shameful  associations 
proved,  or  the  shameful  associations  inseparable  from  the 
name,  are  to  be  punished.  In  the  meantime,  respecting 
those  who  were  referred  to  me  as  Christians,  I  iiave  fol- 
lowed this  course.  I  have  asked  them  whether  they  were 
Christians  ;  if  they  confessed  it,  a  second  and  third  lime  I 
asked  them,  threatening  torture ;  if  they  persevered,  I  or- 
dered them  to  be  led  away  to  the  penalty.  For  I  had  no 
question,  whatever  that  might  be  which  they  professed, 
that  this  fixed  determination  and  inflexible  oi)stinacy  ought 
to  be  punished.  Others  there  were  of  like  unreasonable- 
ness, whom,  because  they  were  Roman  citizens,  1  made  a 
note  of  to  be  remanded  to  the  city.  Straightway,  when 
this  policy  had  been  inaugurated,  the  crime  extended  itself, 
as  is  often  the  case,  and  several  varieties  arose.  An  anony- 
mous list  containing  the  names  of  many  was  published. 
Those  who  denied  that  tiiey  were,  or  had  been.  Chris- 
tians, I  thought  ought  to  be  dismissed,  wiien  in  my  pres- 
ence they  invoked  the  gods  and  to  your  statue,  which  for 
this  purpose  I  had  ordered  to  be  produced  together  with 
the  images  of  the  deities,  did  homage  with  incense  and 
wine,  and  moreover  renounced  Christ,  —  acour.se  to  which, 
it  is  averred,  those  who  arc  in  verity  Christians  can  by  no 
means  be  compelled.  Others  named  on  the  list  said  they 
were  Christians  and  soon  denied  it,  indeed  had  been,  but 
had  ceased  to  be,  some  three  years  ago,  some  several 
years  ago,  ^nd  an  occasional  one  even  twenty  years  since. 
These  all  also  worshipped  both  your  statue  and  the  images 
of  the  gods,  and  renounced  Christ.  They  affirmed  also 
that  the  sum  of  their  guilt,  or  error,  was  to  assemble  on 
a  fixed  day  before  daybreak  and  sing  in  responses  a  song 
to  Christ  as  to  a  god,  and  to  bind  themselves  with  an  oath 


24      INTRODUCTION    TO    THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS. 

not  to  enter  into  any  wickedness,  or  commit  thefts,  rob- 
beries, or  adulteries,  or  falsify  their  word,  or  repudiate 
trusts  committed  to  them  :  when  these  things  were  ended, 
it  was  their  custom  to  depart,  and,  on  coming  together 
again,  to  take  food,  men  and  women  together,  and  yet  in- 
nocently; which  thing  they  had  ceased  to  do  after  my 
edict  by  which,  according  to  your  injunctions,  I  had  for- 
bidden secret  societies.  Wherefore  the  more  necessary  I 
deemed  it  to  seek,  even  by  torture,  from  two  maidens, 
who  were  called  deaconesses  {tniuistra:),  what  was  true. 
I  found  nothing  else  than  an  immoderate,  vicious  super- 
stition. And  so,  the  investigation  concluded,  I  have  has- 
tened to  consult  you.  It  has  seemed  to  me  an  affair 
worthy  of  consultation,  especially  because  of  the  number 
involved.  For  many  of  every  age,  of  every  rank,  of  both 
sexes  also,  are  brought,  and  will  be  brought,  into  danger. 
The  contagion  of  this  superstition  has  permeated,  not 
states  only,  but  country  towns  and  rural  districts  as  well ; 
and  yet  it  seems  possible  at  present  to  withstand  and  cor- 
rect it.  Indeed,  it  is  clearly  evident  that  the  temples, 
recently  well-nigh  deserted,  have  begun  of  late  to  be  fre- 
quented again,  and  the  sacred  offerings,  long  omitted,  to 
be  again  in  demand,  and  provender  for  the  sacrificial  vic- 
tims to  come  to  market,  for  which  hitherto  an  infrequent 
purchaser  was  found.  From  these  indications  of  improve- 
ment it  is  easy  to  judge  what  perversion  of  men  can  be 
amended,  if  there  be  an  opportunity  for  repentance."  ^ 

To  this  epistle  Trajan  replied  as  follows  :  — 

"  You  have  pursued  the  course,  my  Secundus,  which 
you  ought,  in  investigating  the  cases  of  those  who  have 
been  brought  to  you  as  Christians.     For  it  is  impossible 

1  Epistles,-^..,  96.  It  may  be  found  also  in  the  Latin  in  Charteris's 
Canoniciiy,  p.  362. 


HEATHEN  SOURCES —DIRECT   IVITN ESSES.      25 

to  transform  into  the  universal  type  anything  which  has 
its  own  fixed  form.  They  are  not  to  be  searched  after 
by  inquisition ;  if  they  are  arraigned  and  convicted,  they 
must  be  punished,  and  yet  with  tiie  intent  that  he  who 
renounces  his  Christianity  and  makes  his  renunciation  in 
verity  manifest,  that  is,  by  worshipping  our  deities,  how- 
ever suspected  in  the  past,  may  obtain  pardon  because  of 
his  retraction.  Lists  pubHshed  anonymously  ought  not 
to  have  a  place  in  the  investigation  of  any  crime.  That 
follows  a  most  pernicious  precedent,  and  does  not  belong 
to  our  age."i 

These  two  letters  relate,  it  is  true,  rather  to 
Christians  than  to  Christ ;  and  yet  they  imply 
unmistakably  the  historic  fact  of  his  existence, 
and  the  marvellous  influence  of  his  life  over 
the  lives  of  men.  Did  Jesus  Christ  actually 
live,  a  historic  personage  .■*  These  epistles  are 
unintelligible  on  any  other  supposition  ;  and 
they  present  no  grounds  of  suspicion  against 
their  integrity  or  their  genuineness,  unless  it 
be  this  testimony  which  they  bear.  Even  the 
emperor  at  Rome,  three-quarters  of  a  centiny^ 
after  Christ's  crucifixion,  was  obliged  to  pause 
in  his  world-ruling  to  decide  what  treatment 
should  be  given  the  followers  of  the  despised 
Nazarene. 

1  Trajan's  epistle  is  appended  to  the  foregoing  in  most  editions 
of  Pliny's  Epistles.  See  Pritchard  and  Bernhard's  Selected  Letters 
of  Pliny,  p.  109. 

2  Trajan  was  emperor  from  a.d.  98  to  a.d.  117. 


26      INTRODUCTION    TO    THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS. 

This  is  a  somewhat  lengthy  correspondence, 
but  its  importance  warrants  attention  to  it  all. 
Pliny  was  born  when  the  apostle  Paul  was  a 
prisoner  at  Rome  ;  he  was  in  the  prime  of  his 
manhood  when  the  apostle  John  lived  at  Ephesus, 
and  wrote  the  Fourth  Gospel  ;  his  residence  as 
propraetor  brought  him  into  territory  near  which 
Paul  had  established  churches,  and  even  within 
which  Paul  had  at  one  time  desired  to  preach.' 
The  manner  of  worship,  the  purity  of  life,  and 
the  singleness  and  tenacity  of  the  Christians' 
devotion  to  the  name  of  their  Master,  predicate 
necessarily  the  existence  of  a  personality  un- 
paralleled in  the  world's  history. 

The  Emperor  Hadrian,  who  reigned  from  a.d. 
117  to  A.D.  138,  had,  as  private  secretary,  a 
certain  Suetonius.  This  Suetonius  wrote  a 
book  entitled  T/ic  Lives  of  the  CeBsars,  in  which 
were  given  brief  biographies  of  twelve  em- 
perors, beginning  with  Caius  Julius  Caesar,  and 
concluding  with  Domitian.  In  his  account  of 
Nero  he  speaks  of  Nero  as  a  public  benefactor 
because  he  punished  Christians  as  "  a  class  of 
men  of  a  novel  and  malignant  superstition." 
In  his  biography  of  Claudius^  he  states  that 
Claudius  expelled  the  Jews  from  Rome  because 
they  were  raising  seditions  at  the  instigation  of 

1  Acts  xvi.  7.  2  Chapter  xxv. 


HEATHEN  SOURCES  — DIRECT   IVITN ESSES.      27 

one  "  Chrestus."  '  Although  not  positively 
demonstrable,  yet  one  cannot  resist  the  conclu- 
sion that  with  Suetonius  "  Chrestus  "  is  a  mis- 
spelling for  CJirislus,  and  that  the  secretary  of 
the  emperor,  moving  in  ofBcial  circles,  knows 
little  personally  of  either  Jew  or  Christian,  and 
has  therefore  failed  to  distinguish  ^  between 
them,  alleging  to  Christ,  as  though  a  person 
still  living,^  the  instigation  of  sedition  amongst 
the  Je%vs.  This  expulsion  of  the  Jews  from 
Rome,  which  fell  probab.ly  in  the  year  a.d.  53, 
is  referred  to  by  the  writer  of  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles  ;  *  but  it  could  not  have  been  an  ex- 
pulsion for  a  great  length  of  time,  as  it  is  not 
reported  elsewhere  ;  and,  according  to  the  six- 
teenth chapter  of  Paul's  epistle  to  the  Romans, 
written  in  a.d.  58,  within  five  years  after  the 
expulsion  took  place,  many  Christian  Jews  are 
saluted  by  name  as  resident  then  in  Rome. 
After  all  that  may  legitimately  be  said  to  the 

1  Justin  Martyr  implies  that  the  name  "Chrestus"  is  common 
among  the  people  for  "  Christus,"'  and  claims  the  significance  of 
the  former,  excellent,  as  applicable  to  tiie  latter.  —  First  Apology, 
chap.  iv. 

2  On  this  failure  of  the  Romans  to  distinguish  between  Jews  and 
Christians,  see  Lightfoot's  Apostolic  Fathers,  vol.  i.,  part  ii.,  p.  9  sq. 

8  Godet  on  Ronians,  vol.  i.,  p.  64.  quotes,  "  Wieseler  and  many 
other  critics"  as  thinking  Chrestus  (a  common  name  for  a  freedman) 
an  obscure  Jewish  agitator  ;  but  Godet  himself  thinks  Suetonius  con- 
founds the  expectation  of  the  coming  Messias  with  a  living  person. 

4  Acts  xviii.  2. 


28      INTRODUCTION    TO    THE  LIFE   OF  JESUS. 

contrary,  Suetonius  should  still  be  included 
among  the  witnesses  to  Christ,  although  per- 
haps not  an  unambiguous  one. 

Lucian,  the  brilliant  pagan  satirist,  who,  born 
at  Samosata  in  Syria,  had  travelled  far  and 
wide,  visiting  among  other  countries  parts  of 
Asia  Minor  where  Christians  were  especially 
numerous,  took  a  certain  Peregrinus,  who  had 
made  himself  notorious  by  self-immolation  at  the 
Olympian  games  in  a.d.  165,  "as  a  peg"i  on 
which  to  hang  a  rude  caricature  of  Christianity, 
as  it  had  recently  been  exemplified  in  the  lives, 
or  rather  martyrdoms,  of  Justin  Martyr,  Poly- 
carp,  and  Ignatius.  The  allusions  to  the  inci- 
dents in  the  career  and  movements  of  Ignatius, 
as  well  as  to  passages  in  his  writings,  are  both 
numerous  and  striking.^  Lucian  must  have 
written  immediately  after  the  death  of  Pere- 
grinus, when  the  fact  was  most  conspicuous 
before  the  public  mind.  His  satire  is  usually 
dated  between  a.d.  165  and  a.d.  170.  That 
he  wrote  in  the  time  of  Marcus  Aurelius  is 
apparent  from  mention  which  he  makes  of  that 
emperor   as   contemporary .^      Marcus   Aurelius 

1  Lightfoot,  Apostolic  Fathers,  vol.  i.,  part  ii.,  pp.  344-348,  uses 
this  phrase  in  describing  Lucian's  testimony  to  Christianity. 

-  Zahn,  Ignathts  von  Antiocken,  p.  524  sq.,  recognizes  this  cari- 
cature of  Ignatius,  a  caricature  conceded  by  Baur  and  Renan. 

3  In  his  Alexander,  §  43  , 


HEATHEN  SOURCES  — DIRECT   IVITNESSES.      29 

reigned  from  a.d.  i6i  to  a.u.  i8o.  In  this 
satire  the  founder  of  the  Christian  rehgion  is 
described  "as  the  man  who  had  htian  Jixcd  to  a 
stake^  hi  Palestine ;"  and  as  one  "still  wor- 
shipped for  having  introduced  a  new  code  of 
morals  into  life."  The  zeal  of  early  converts  is 
shown  by  their  flocking  to  the  prison  in  which 
Peregrinus  was  confined,  by  the  sympathy  con- 
veyed from  distant  cities  of  Asia,  by  contribu- 
tions of  money  for  his  support,  and  by  their 
total  indifference  to  life;  "for,"  says  Lucian, 
"  the  poor  wretches  have  persuaded  themselves 
that  they  will  live  forever."  The  founder  of 
the  religion,  "that  first  lawgiver  of  theirs,"  he 
adds,  "  made  them  believe  that  they  are  all 
brothers  when  they  have  abjured  the  gods  of 
Greece,  and  worshipped  the  crucified  man  who 
is  their  teacher,  and  have  begun  to  live  accord- 
ing to  his  laws."  Such  phrases  as  these  add 
nothing  to  our  knowledge  of  Jesus  Christ ;  but, 
coming  from  a  pagan  writer,  a  source  clearly 
independent  of  all  partisan  advocacy,  do  materi- 
ally confirm  our  faith  in  the  historicity  of  that 
life. 

These    are    all    the    heathen    writers    whose 

I  This  expression,  ai-atTitoAojrio-flet?,  instead  of  the  more  common 
ecclesiastical  phrase,  o-ToupioanV,  crucified,  Zahn,  p.  520,  says,  together 
with  some  other  phrases,  is  used  designedly  to  give  the  narrative  a 
Grecian  character. 


30      INTRODUCTION   TO   THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS. 

works,  extant,  can  be  taken  in  hand.  The 
paucity  of  them  is  not  surprising  when  the  con- 
ditions of  the  times  are  considered.  Christians 
were  a  "new"  sect,  as  each  testimony  adduced 
either  declares  or  implies  ;  though  so  widely 
dispersed,  they  were  few  in  numbers  in  propor- 
tion to  the  people  about  them  ;  they  were  poor 
and  without  influence,  until  well  along  in  the 
second  century.  The  literature  of  the  day  also, 
so  far  as  it  has  been  preserved  to  us,  was  busied 
with  themes  far  removed  from  the  obscure 
yearnings  and  hopes  and  prayers  and  faith  of 
the  common  people.  But  Tacitus,  Pliny,  Sue- 
tonius, and  Lucian  are  a  convincing  array  of 
witnesses.  Either  one  alone  would  be  impli- 
citly believed  in  secular  matters.  Tacitus,  un- 
supported by  other  testimony,  is  an  authority 
for  the  early  history  and  conditions  of  central 
Europe ;  ^  Pliny  is  almost  our  only  source  for 
information  concerning  the  eruption  of  Mount 
Vesuvius  which  destroyed  Pompeii  and  Hercu- 
laneum  ;  ^  and  Suetonius  gives  not  a  few  inci- 
dents in  the  lives  of  the  emperors,  which, 
though  uncorroborated,  are  received  as  reliable. 
If  they  are  thus   believed   singly,   much  more 

^  His  Germania,  or,  in  inW,  De  Origine,Sitii,  Moribus  ac  Po/>tilis 
Germanorum. 

"^  Epistles,  VI.,  i6  and  20. 


HEATHEN  SOURCES  —  DIRECT  WITNESSES.      31 

should  their  coincident  testimony  be  received. 
In  the  mouth  of  these  four  witnesses  it  must 
be  acknowledged  as  proved,  even  though  all 
other  evidence  were  wanting,  that  Jesus  Christ 
had  lived  in  Judea  during  the  reign  of  Tiberius, 
had  been  crucified  by  order  of  Pontius  Pilate, 
and  after  his  death  had  exerted  such  an  influ- 
ence that  men  willingly  gave  their  lives  for 
him,  and,  in  living,  endured  for  his  sake  all 
manner  of  insult  and  persecution.  By  these 
four  alone  it  must  be  conceded  that  a  life  is 
demonstrated  unmatched  in  its  potency  amongst 
men. 


CHAPTER    III. 

HEATHEN    SOURCES  QUOTED    WITNESSES. 

Four  heathen  witnesses  have  been  called  to 
the  stand,  and  it  has  been  said  that  these  are 
all  whose  works  are  extant ;  but  there  still  re- 
main several  whose  writings,  though  themselves 
lost,  can  in  large  part  be  recovered  from  quota- 
tions made  by  other,  in  most  cases  Christian, 
writers.  This  introduces  another  element,  and 
yet  does  not  so  deprive  the  testimony  of  its  pri- 
mary character  as  to  render  it  "  hearsay ; "  for  it 
will  be  seen  that,  while  the  original  documents 
have  been  lost,  the  quotations  from  some  of 
them  have  been  so  generous,  and  at  the  same 
time  so  ingenuous,  as  to  preserve  the  integrity, 
if  not  the  entirety,  of  the  original.  When,  how- 
ever, the  author  who  quotes  merely  mentions 
what  another  has  said,  the  elements  of  uncer- 
tainty must  be  recognized.  It  is  possible  to 
misunderstand  ;  by  employing  other  language, 
to  misrepresent  ;  through  personal  prejudice 
and  bias,  to  entirely  pervert,  whether  it  be  in- 
nocently or  designedly.  Of  these  opportunities 
for  error  direct  quotation  is  free. 


HEATHEN  SOURCES  —  QUOTED   IVITNESSES.      33 

Origen,  whom  wc  must  mention  later  for 
his  own  testimony,  flourished  in  the  first  half 
of  the  third  century.^  He  was  a  voluminous 
writer.  In  his  essay  Against  Celsus^  he  says 
of  Numenius,  "  And  in  the  third  book  of  his 
dissertation  on  TJtc  Good,  he  quotes  also  a 
narrative  regarding  Jesus,  —  without,  however, 
mentioning  his  name,  —  and  gives  it  an  allegor- 
ical signification,  whether  successfully  or  the 
reverse  I  may  state  on  another  occasion."  But 
little  is  known  of  this  Numenius.  Clement^  of 
Alexandria  and  Eusebius  *  quote  him,  besides 
Origen.  Origen  terms ^  him  "that  Pythagorean, 
a  surpassingly  excellent  expounder  of  Plato, 
who  held  a  foremost  place  as  a  teacher  of  the 
doctrines  of  Pythagoras,"  and  characterizes  him 
as  one  who  "was  willing  to  investigate  our  his- 
tories from  a  desire  to  acquire  knowledge." 
Perhaps  this  last  expression  implies  that  Nu- 
menius received  what  knowledge  he  may  have 
possessed  of  Christ  and  Christianity  from  the 
Scriptures,  and  that,  therefore,  he  cannot  be 
accredited  in  our  present   inquiry  as   an   inde- 

1  The  dates  assigned  him  are  A.u.  1S5-254.  See  Dr.  Salmon  in 
Smith  and  Wace's  Dictionary  of  Christian  Biography,  and  W.  Moller 
in  The  Schaff-Ihrzog  Encyclopaedia. 

2  Bk.  IV.,  chap.  li. 

8  Siromata,  Bk.  I.,  chap.  xxii. 

*  Church  History,  Bk.  VI.,  chap,  xix 

6  Against  Celsus,  Bk.  I\'.,  chup.  li. 


34      INTRODUCTION    TO    THE  LIFE   OF  JESUS. 

pendent  witness.  At  best  Numenius  is  but 
little  more  than  a  name.  He  doubtless  lived  in 
the  latter  half  of  the  second  century,  too  far 
away  from  the  days  of  Pontius  Pilate  to  be  an 
eye-witness  of  the  things  about  which  we  in- 
quire, but  not  too  far  away  perhaps,  had  we  his 
writings,  to  bring  to  us,  out  of  his  own  inde- 
pendent inquiries  and  research,  corroborative 
evidence  of  facts  in  the  life  of  Jesus. 

Phlegon  of  Tralles,  in  Asia  Minor,  belongs 
in  the  same  category  with  Numenius.  He 
wrote  extensively,  but  little  remains.  In  Hei- 
delberg is  a  manuscript  containing  disjointed 
fragments  of  three  treatises,  the  titles  of  which, 
"  On  Marvels,"  "  On  Long-lived  Persons,"  and 
"  Olympiads,"  agree  with  the  contents  in  show- 
ing Phlegon  to  be  a  man  "  credulous  and  super- 
stitious to  absurdity."  ^  He  was  a  freedman  of 
the  emperor  Hadrian,  and  flourished,  therefore, 
at  the  middle  or  in  the  early  half  of  the  second 
century.  Origen  ^  has  to  say  of  him,  "  Now 
Phlegon,  in  the  thirteenth  or  fourteenth  book, 
I  think,  of  his  chronicles,  not  only  ascribed  to 
Jesus  a  knowledge  of  future  events  (although 
falling  into  confusion  about  some  things  which 
refer  to  Peter,  as  if  they  referred  to  Jesus),  but 

1  Encyc.  Brit.,  "  Phlegon,"  vol.  xviii.,  p.  798. 

2  Against  Cclsus,  Bk.  II.,  chap.  xiv. 


HF.-1THEN  SOURCES— QUOTED   IVITN ESSES.      35 

also  testified  that  the  result  corresponded  to  his 
predictions."  The  topic  under  discussion  by 
Origen  is  the  foreknowledge  of  Jesus.  It  is 
surely  fortunate  both  for  Origen  and  for  us  that 
our  acquaintance  with  the  Christ  does  not  de- 
pend upon  the  unsupported  testimony  of  a 
Phlegon  ;  although  in  the  company  of  others, 
and  for  the  sake  of  completeness,  both  Origen 
and  we  desire  to  summon  him  into  court. 

Another  writer  known  to  us  only  through  the 
works  of  Origen  is  Celsus,  famous  for  his  an- 
tagonism to  Christianity.  The  exact  time  when 
Celsus  lived  we  do  not  know.  Origen  gives  no 
conclusive  data  for  determining  ;  but  he  wrote, 
without  doubt,  between  a.d.  150  and  ad.  180.^ 
His  writings  are  lo.st.  Origen,  however,  repro- 
duces, nearly  entire,  a  treatise  entitled,  A  True 
Discourse,  which  came  into  his  hand  from  a 
friend,  named  Ambrosius,  and  which  he  essays 
to  answer  in  detail.  This  gives  rise  to  the 
well-known  treatise  of  Origen,  Agaitist  Cc/sus. 
Origen,  in  replying,  repeats  the  arguments  of 
Celsus  one  by  one.  It  is  interesting  to  find 
that  a  great  sceptic  seventeen  centuries  ago 
anticipated  nearly  all  the  assaults  that  appear  to 

1  John  Rickards  Mozley,  in  Smith  and  Wace's  Dictionary  of  Chris- 
tian Biography,  gives  the  time  when  Celsus  wrote,  as  fixed  by  Keini, 
as  A.D.  177  or  178. 


36      INTRODUCTION   TO    THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS. 

modern  doubters  so  conclusive.  In  scepticism 
there  seems  verily  to  be  "nothing  new  under 
the  sun."  ^   , 

Celsus  divides  his  discourse  into  two  parts. 
In  the  first  he  represents  a  Jew  as  arguing.^ 
The  Jew  rejects  the  miraculous  birth  of  Jesus ; 
Mary  was  divorced  from  her  husband,  and,  wan- 
dering about,  fell  in  with  a  Roman  soldier,  Pen- 
thera,  who  became  the  father  of  Jesus  ;  Jesus, 
being  needy,  went  down  into  Egypt,  and  there 
learned  all  the  tricks  by  which  he  could  work 
apparent  miracles,  and  on  the  strength  of  this 
knowledge  he  claimed  to  be  God  when  he  re- 
turned to  Judea ;  but  who  could  believe  the 
statements  made  in  regard  to  him  .-'  Who  heard 
the  voice  at  his  baptism  ?  None  but  himself 
and  a  companion  who  shared  his  dream,  or 
rather  his  imposture.  The  miracles  ascribed 
to  him  are  absurd ;  any  one  could  see  such 
miracles  by  paying  a  few  obols  to  an  Egyptian 
juggler.      If    Jesus   was    God,   would    he    have 

1  Professor  Weiss  of  Berlin,  in  lecturing  upon  the  Gospel  of  John, 
calls  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  newest  criticism  has  few,  if  any, 
charges  to  bring  against  the  genuineness  of  the  Fourth  Gospel,  which 
have  not  already  been  given  in  Bretschneider's  Probabilia,  published 
in  1820. 

2  The  following  epitome  is  that  of  James  Donaldson,  LL.D., 
Encyc.  Brit.,  art.  "  Celsus."  An  admirable  digest  of  the  argument 
of  Celsus  is  in  Bishop  Westcott's  article,  "  Origenes,"  in  Smith  and 
Wace's  Dictionary  of  Cliristian  Biography. 


V  V  J 


\ 


i 
/ 

HEATHEN  SOURCES —QUOTED    IVITN ESSES.      37 

chosen  such  wicked  and  worthless  men  as  his 
apostles?  If  he  knew  that  Judas  would  be- 
tray him,  why  did  he  make  him  his  companion  ? 
But  the  story  of  the  resurrection  especially 
was  absurd.  He  had  been  condemned  pub- 
licly before  the  eyes  of  all ;  no  one  could  doubt 
this ;  if  then  he  rose  again,  why  did  he  not 
make  his  justification  as  public?  Would  he 
not  have  confronted  his  judge,  his  accusers, 
the  general  public,  and  given  indubitable  evi- 
dence that  he  was  not  a  malefactor  ?  And  who 
saw  him  after  he  rose  ?  A  half-insane  woman, 
and  one  or  two  followers  who  were  in  the  very 
humor  to  trust  to  dreams  or  to  an  excited 
fancy. 

Such,  in  substance,  are  the  arguments  which 
Origen  reports  as  put  into  the  mouth  of  a  Jew 
by  Celsus.  In  his  second  part  Celsus  denies 
the  facts  of  Christianity  on  philosophic  grounds 
in  the  following  strains  :  God  is  good  and  beau- 
tiful and  blessed  ;  he,  therefore,  cannot  change, 
for,  if  he  were  to  change,  it  could  only  be  for 
the  worse ;  therefore  God  cannot  come  down 
to  men,  cannot  assume  a  mortal  body.  He  can- 
not do  it  in  reality,  for  that  would  be  contrary 
to  his  nature ;  neither  can  he  do  it  in  appear- 
ance, for  that  would  be  to  deceive,  and  God 
cannot    deceive.      God   must    be    seen    by  the 


38      INTRODUCTION   TO   THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS. 

soul,  and  men  are  deceived  if  they  imagine 
they  know  him  better  by  seeing  him  in  a  cor- 
ruptible body  than  when  they  see  him  with  the 
pure  eye  of  the  soul.  Did  God  (at  the  time  of 
Christ's  advent)  waken  from  sleep,  and  resolve 
to  rescue  a  few  from  sin  ?  Was  he  indifferent 
to  all  mankind  before,  to  all  the  nations  of  the 
earth  ?  and  is  he  to  continue  to  show  the  same 
special  favor  for  only  a  select  few  ? 

Such  are  the  reasonings  of  Celsus.  It  does 
not  devolve  upon  us  to  answer  his  propositions 
and  inquiries.  Origen  has  done  that  in  a  bulky 
treatise  of  six  hundred  and  twenty-two  chapters, 
divided  into  eight  books.  But  we  do  well  to 
notice  that  in  the  time  of  Celsus  the  main 
facts  of  the  Gospel  narrative  are  no  longer  in 
obscurity,  to  be  treated  with  contempt,  but, 
well  known  and  widely  reported,  are  deemed 
worthy  of  his  efforts  to  refute  them.  From 
whatever  source  Celsus  may  have  derived  his 
information  concerning  Christ,  it  is  noteworthy 
that  the  material  reported  harmonizes  with  the 
contents  of  the  Gospels.  And,  if  Celsus  wrote 
in  the  third  quarter  of  the  second  century,  the 
sources  from  which  he  draws  must  ^  date  from 
the  first  half  of  that  century,  or  even  earlier. 

In  the  days  of  Rome's  administration  of  af- 
fairs  throughout   the   world,   it   was   customary 


HEATH  F.N  SOURCES  — OUOTFD   IVITN  ESSES.      39 

for  her  officials  to  render  periodically  a  report 
of  their  achievements  and  of  events  incident  to 
their  positions.  Did  Pontius  Pilate  render  an 
account  to  his  emperor,  Tiberius  ?  This  has 
been  a  question  fertile  for  the  imagination,  if 
not  for  historic  evidence.  Various  documents 
of  Pilate  are  mentioned  in  ancient  writings ; 
some  are  e.xtant  to-day,  professing  to  have 
issued  from  him.  In  collections  of  the  Apoc- 
ryphal Writings  of  the  New  Testament  may  be 
found  "  The  Letter  of  Pontius  Pilate,  which  he 
wrote  to  the  Roman  Emperor,  concerning  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  ; "  "  The  Report  of  Pilate, 
the  Procurator,  concerning  our  Lord  Jesus,  sent 
to  the  august  Caesar  in  Rome;"  "The  Giving 
up  of  Pontius  Pilate ; "  and  "  The  Death  of 
Pilate  who  condemned  Jesus."  ^  In  1889  there 
fell  under  my  eye,  in  a  paper  2  published  in 
Cologne,  Germany,  for  a  Roman  Catholic  con- 
.stituency,  a  document  which  purported  to  be 
a  copy  of  a  brass  tablet  on  which  had  been 
engraved  the  official  sentence  pronounced  by 
Pontius  Pilate  against  Jesus.  All  these  alleged 
utterances  of  Pilate  are  curious,  are  interesting, 

1  These  may  all  be  found  in  The  Antc-Nicene  Fathers,  vol.  viii., 

pp.  459-467. 

'"5  The  Koelnische  Zcititttg.  The  date  I  am  unable  to  fix.  .\ 
friend  sent  me  a  clipping  from  The  London  Tablet,  containing  the 
"  Sentence  "  entire,  as  taken  from  the  Cologne  paper. 


40      INTRODUCTION    TO    THE  LIFE   OF  JESUS. 

but  are  deserving  of  no  credence  as  historic 
documents.  They  are  of  late  origin.  This 
"Sentence"  was  not  discovered  until  1280. 
The  other  documents,  though  perhaps  reprodu- 
cing in  part  genuine  documents,  are  themselves 
of  later  origin  than  the  first  century.  None  of 
the  manuscripts  in  which  they  are  preserved  go 
back  farther  than  the  ninth  century. 

And  yet,  though  we  do  not  possess  the  reports 
themselves,  it  is  quite  probable  that  we  have 
information  of  reports  which  Pilate  rendered 
to  Tiberius  ;  for  Justin  Martyr,  Tertullian,  and 
Eusebius  make  mention  of  such  papers.  In 
one  place  ^  Justin  Martyr  says,  "  And  after  he 
was  crucified  they  cast  lots  upon  his  vesture, 
and  they  that  crucified  him  parted  it  among 
them.  And  that  these  things  did  happen,  you 
can  ascertain  from  the  Acts  of  Pontius  Pilate ;  " 
in  another  2  he  says,  speaking  of  the  miracles 
that  Jesus  performed,  "  And  that  he  did  these 
things,  you  can  learn  from  the  Acts  of  Pontius 
Pilate."  Justin  wrote  just  before  the  middle  of 
the  second  century ;  and  it  is  not  improbable 
that  he  had  seen  at  that  time  the  documents 
of  which  he  speaks,  which  subsequently,  be- 
cause so  frequently  appealed  to  in  condemna- 
tion  of   Roman   severities,   were  destroyed   by 

1    The  First  Apology,  chap,  xxxv  2  /^iV.,  chap,  xlviii. 


HEATHEN  SOURCES— QUOTED  WITNESSES.      41 

Roman  authority,  and  reproduced  after  some 
length  of  time  in  the  expanded,  palpably  spu- 
rious, forms  now  preserved. 

Tertullian,  who  lived  in  the  last  half  of  the 
second  century,  indicates  acquaintance  with  the 
same  document  in  the  following  phrases :  "  All 
these  things  Pilate  did  to  Christ  ;  and  now  in 
fact,  a  Christian  in  his  own  convictions,  he 
sent  word  of  him  to  the  reigning  Caesar,  who 
was  at  the  time  Tiberius."  ^  *'  Tiberius,  accord- 
ingly, in  whose  days  the  Christian  name  made 
its  entry  into  the  world,  Jiaving  himself  received 
intelligence  from  Palestine  of  events  which  had 
clearly  shown  the  truth  of  Christ's  divinity, 
brought  the  matter  before  the  senate,  with 
his  own  decision  in  favor  of  Christ."  ^  These 
are  not  very  explicit  statements,  and  yet  they 
strengthen  the  probability  of  there  having  ex- 
isted at  some  time  official  reports  from  Pilate 
concerning  Christ. 

luisebius,  more  than  a  century  later  than 
Tertullian,  is  more  explicit.  In  his  ChurcJi 
History  he  says,^  "And  when  the  wonderful 
resurrection  and  ascension  of  our  Saviour  were 

1  Apology,  cliap.  xxi.  2  ibid.,  cluip.  v. 

8  Bk.  II.,  chap.  ii.  It  must  be  remembered,  however,  that  Euse- 
bius  did  not  possess  either  tlie  critical  skill  or  unprejudiced  disposition 
of  modern  scholarsliip,  and  evinces  at  times  a  willingness  to  repeat 
too  trustingly  what  liis  predecessors  have  written. 


42      INTRODUCTION    TO    THE  LIFE   OF  JESUS. 

already  noised  abroad,  in  accordance  with  an  an- 
cient custom  which  prevailed  among  the  rulers 
of  the  provinces,  of  reporting  to  the  emperor 
the  novel  occurrences  which  took  place  in  them, 
in  order  that  nothing  might  escape  him,  Pontius 
Pilate  informed  Tiberius  of  the  reports  which 
were  noised  abroad  through  all  Palestine  con- 
cerning the  resurrection  of  our  Saviour  Jesus 
from  the  dead.  He  gave  an  account  also  of 
other  wonders  which  he  had  learned  of  him,  and 
how,  after  his  death,  having  risen  from  the  dead, 
he  was  now  believed  by  many  to  be  a  god." 

That  the  three  witnesses  whom  we  have 
named  should  be  mistaken  in  regard  to  such  a 
report  would  be  unusual,  although  we  need  not 
say  impossible.  It  is  possible  that  they  merely 
repeat  one  another  ;  and  yet  the  inherent  proba- 
bilities point  the  other  way.  While  not  posses- 
sing the  report  itself,  we  may  reasonably  believe 
that  Pilate  could  not  wash  his  hands  of  Jesus 
until  he  had  rendered  an  account  of  Jesus's  fate 
unto  the  emperor,  although  what  that  account 
was  we  have  at  present  no  means  of  knowing. 

And  now,  to  sum  up  the  indirect  testimony 
from  heathen  sources,^  we  find  it  a  testimony 

1  The  edicts  of  Roman  emperors  against  the  Christians  belong  to 
a  somewhat  later  period  than  that  significant  for  our  inquiries.  The 
first,  instigated  by  Gaierius,  but  issuing  from  Diocletian,  bears  date 
of  A.D.  303.     On  the  testimony  of  early  Christian  writers,  we  may 


HliATHEN  SOURCES  — QU0TI:D   IV ITN ESSES.      43 

probable,  but  not  conclusive,  because  it  rests 
in  each  case  upon  the  testimony  of  another. 
Numenius  and  Phlegon  and  Celsus  and  Pon- 
tius Pilate  bore  testimony  to  Christ,  so  other 
men  tell  us,  and  tell  us  in  part  what  that  testi- 
mony was,  yet  we  have  not  the  testimony  itself. 
A  court  of  law  might  rule  out  such  evidence, 
but  the  world's  court  of  thinkers  cannot  afford 
so  to  do.  Were  all  the  knowledge  of  antiquity 
that  is  derived  only  through  intermediate  sources 
lost  to  the  world,  the  world  would  be  poor  in- 
deed in  knowledge  concerning  some  of  the  most 
important  personages  and  epochs  of  history. 
We  need  not  eliminate  from  our  critical  tribu- 
nal this  indirect  testimony,  however  cautious 
we  may  wish  to  be  in  our  criticism  ;  and  yet 
we  may  remember  that  this  kind  of  testimony 
is  but  an  adjunct  to  the  stronger,  the  direct,  of 
which  there  remains  an  ample  store. 

suppose  that  Domitiati  and  Marcus  Aurelius  issued  edicts  against 
the  Christians.  But  tiiese  are  not  extant.  It  must  be  remembered 
also  that  what  illustrates  the  history  of  Christianity  does  not  prove 
directly,  nor  always  necessarily,  the  Christ,  to  which  line  of  proof  our 
inquiries  are  limited. 

One  incident  should  not  be  left  unmentioned.  Eusebius  (Ch. 
Hist.,  Bk.  III.,  chaps,  xix.,  x.x.)  repeats  the  words  of  Hegesippus,  who 
wrote  between  a.d.  175  and  a.d.  1S9,  which  describe  how  Domitian, 
hearing  of  relatives  of  Christ  who  were  endeavoring  to  establish  a 
kingdom  on  earth,  suspicious  of  treason  against  his  empire,  called 
the  grandsons  of  Jude,  the  Lord's  brother,  before  him,  and  having 
seen  from  their  callous  hands  and  simple  answers  that  they  were 
harmless  peasants,  dismissed  them  without  injury. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

JEWISH    SOURCES. 

"The  greatest  of  uninspired  Jewish  writers 
of  old,"  is  what  Edersheim  says  of  Philo  in 
his  The  Life  and  Times  of  Jcsiis  the  Messiah} 
Philo  was  a  Jewish  philosopher  of  Alexandria, 
who  was  born  about  20  B.C.,  and  lived  certainly 
until  A.D.  40 ;  for  at  that  time  he  made  a  visit 
to  Rome  which  he  himself  describes.  Nothing 
later,  however,  is  known  of  him.  Philo  was 
thoroughly  imbued  with  Greek  philosophy,  and 
wrote  profusely,^  trying  to  harmonize  the  Ju- 
daism of  his  fathers  with  the  philosophy  of 
Greece ;  but  in  all  his  writings  he  makes  no 
mention  whatever  of  Christ  or  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion.  It  may  seem  at  first  thought, 
therefore,  preposterous  that  he  should  be  men- 
tioned at  all  when  we  are  seeking  witnesses  for 
the  life  of  the  founder  of  Christianity  ;  but  our 
search  is  not  in  a  partisan  spirit.     We  wish  to 

1  Vol.  i.,  p.  40.  Edersheim  gives  an  admirable  sketch  of  the  reli- 
gious and  philosophical  position  of  the  man  in  chap.  iv.  of  his  first 
Book. 

2  Eusebius,  in  his  Church  History,  gives  thirty-two  titles  of  works 
of  Philo;  Bk.  II.,  chap,  xviii. 

44 


JEIVISH  SOURCES.  45 

hear   both   sides  of  the  case,  if  there  are  two 
sides. 

Philo  was  an  immediate  contemporary  of 
Jesus  Christ.  If  he  had  given  utterance  con- 
cerning Christ,  how  important  might  that  ut- 
terance have  been  at  the  time,  and  from  a 
philosopher  accustomed  to  pick  and  weigh  his 
words.  But  since  such  utterance  is  wholly 
wanting,  the  inquiry  thrusts  itself  upon  us.  Is 
Philo  silent  because  there  was  no  Christ  at 
just  his  time  to  testify  to.?  Can  the  argument 
of  silence  be  arraigned  against  the  Christ .? 
We  must  examine  the  probabilities  in  the  case. 

It  is  not  known  that  Philo  lived  after  a.d. 
40.  Indeed,  at  that  time  he  would  have  been 
about  sixty  years  old,  not  destined  long  for  this 
world,  according  to  the  course  of  life.  Silence 
concerning  him  subsequently  does  not  prove 
his  death,  but  surely  strongly  implies  it.  Now, 
at  or  before  a.d.  40,  what  opportunity  or  what 
likelihood  would  Philo  have  had  to  become 
acquainted  with  Christ  or  his  teachings  ?  Philo 
lived  at  Alexandria,  far  from  Palestine,  although 
in  the  midst  of  a  large  Jewish  colony  ;  he  was 
a  scholar,  withdrawn  from  close  contact  and  in- 
tercourse with  men  ;  he  was  also  a  Jew,  who 
was  bent  upon  upholding  his  own  religion,  and 
therefore  unwilling,  had  he  heard  them,  to  listen 


46      INTRODUCTION   TO    THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS. 

to  rumors  of  one  who  taught  contrary  to  his 
rehgion.  With  Philo,  as  with  men  of  letters 
generally,  testimony  from  outside  sources  comes 
almost  wholly  through  books  ;  literature  is  the 
pasturage,  the  sunshine  and  shade,  of  their 
intellects  and  activities.  Jesus  had  left  no 
literature ;  in  a.d.  40  his  followers  had  made 
no  literature  ;  there  was  nothing  for  Philo  to 
peruse. 

Yet  Philo  visited  Rome.  Could  he  have  been 
in  Rome  in  a.d.  40,  and  not  have  heard  of 
Christ }  Eusebius,  Photius,  Jerome,  and  Suidas, 
none  of  whom  wrote  earlier  than  the  fourth 
century,  say  that  while  at  Rome  Philo  met  the 
apostle  Peter.^  But  there  is  not  one  shred  of 
reliable  evidence  that  Peter  was  in  Rome  until 
shortly  before  his  death  there,  in  the  Neronian 
persecution  of  a.d.  6?>.  In  a.d.  40  Christianity 
was  exceedingly  young.  The  crucifixion  had 
preceded  this  date  only  by  ten  years  ;  Paul  had 
been  converted  but  three  or  four  years,  and 
was  then  in  retirement  at  his  home  in  Tarsus, 
having  as  yet  probably  no  clear  anticipation 
of  his  great  missionary  journeys  ;  the  mother 
church  of  Jerusalem  comprised  nearly  all  of 
the  church  which  then  existed,  Samaria,  Joppa, 

1  This  statement  is  started  by  Eusebius,  Church  History,  Bk.  II., 
chap.  xvii. ;  and  yet  he  gives  it  merely  as  a  tradition,  "  it  is  said." 


JFAVISH  SOURCES.  47 

and  Caesarea  alone  having  also  heard  the  mes- 
sage from  apostolic  lips.  There  may  have  been 
a  nucleus  of  believers  at  Rome  at  this  time. 
We  cannot  say  how  early  Christianity  entered 
Rome.  It  certainly  preceded  the  apostle  Paul  ; 
for  as  he  approached  as  a  prisoner  on  his  first 
visit,  in  a.d.  6\,  "the  brethren"  (Acts  xxviii. 
15)  came  out  to  meet  him  as  far  as  The  Mar- 
ket of  Appius  and  The  Three  Taverns ;  and 
even  before  that,  the  great  apostle  had  penned 
an  epistle  "to  all  that  are  in  Rome,  beloved 
of  God,  called  to  be  saints  "  (Rom.  i.  7)  ;  this 
was  in  a.d.  58.  The  church  at  Rome  was  not 
of  Paul's  planting.  It  may  have  owed  its  ori- 
gin to  the  dispersion  of  Christians  attendant 
upon  the  death  of  Stephen  ^  (Acts  viii.  i,  4),  or 
even  earlier,  after  that  day  of  Pentecost  when 
the  Spirit  had  been  poured  out  ;  for  on  that  day 
amongst  those  who  heard  in  their  own  tongue 
were  "sojourners  from  Rome"  (Acts  ii.  10); 
perhaps  some  of  these,  returning,  had  carried 
the  new  life  born  within  them  that  day,  and  had 
spread   it   as  leaven   amongst  their  associates.^ 

1  Only  Judrea  and  Samaria  are  distinctly  mentioned,  yet  the  disper- 
sion may  have  been  broader. 

'■^  Sanday,  on  Romans  in  T/ie  International  Critical  Commentary, 
pp.  xxv.-x.xxi.,  says  the  church  at  Rome  was  formed  of  migrating 
Christians,  some  who  came  from  Jerusalem,  having  heard  Stephen's 
preaching,  others  who  came  from  cities  where  Paul  h.id  preached. 
Cf.  Godet,  Romans,  vol.  i.,  pp.  67-69 ;  and  Lange,  Romans,  p.  32. 


48      INTRODUCTION    TO    THE  LIFE   OF  JESUS. 

But  this,  if  this  history  of  the  origin  of  the 
Roman  church  be  correct,  could  not  have  been 
more  than  eight  or  nine  years  —  allowing  time 
for  the  slow  manner  of  journeying  of  that  age  ^ 
—  before  Philo's  visit.  There  were  very  many 
Jews  in  Rome,  who  were  conspicuous  for  their 
numbers,  their  national  and  religious  exclusive- 
ness  and  social  clannishness.  Christians  no- 
where were  distinguished  from  Jews  by  outside 
observers  until  more  than  a  score  of  years 
after  this  time.  When,  therefore,  Philo  came 
to  Rome,  Christians,  if  indeed  in  Rome,  were 
few  in  numbers,  obscure,  and  indistinguishable 
from  the  Jews.  To  a  visiting  philosopher, 
whose  mission  in  the  city  was  with  a  Jewish 
embassy  to  the  emperor  to  beg  him  to  desist 
from  requiring  of  the  Jews  the  payment  of 
divine  honors,  the  sect  of  Christians  in  that 
vast  city  of  all  kinds  and  classes  of  men  would 
have  naturally  been  as  unknown  as  the  pro- 
ceedings of  a  mutual  improvement  society  in 
an  uptown  street  of  New  York  would  be  to 
Matthew  Arnold  when  he  paid  a  visit  of  a  few 
days  to  that  city,  Philo's  terminology  may 
have  colored  the  language  of  New  Testament 
writers,  since  they  wrote  after  him,  and  may 
have  been  acquainted  with  his  works  ;  but  that 

1  Paul  was  fully  six  months  in  travelling  from  Caesarea  to  Rome. 


JHIVISH  SOURCES.  49 

he  should  have  known  them  or  the  burden  of 
their  thoughts  is  unnatural  to  suppose.  His 
silence  has  been  unwarrantably  wrested  by 
prejudiced  critics.  If  it  has  significance,  when 
the  nature  of  his  occupation  and  environment 
is  taken  into  account,  that  significance  fails  to 
impress  the  majority  of  students  as  in  any 
degree  derogatory  to  the  claims  of  Christianity. 

Flavins  Josephus  is  our  next  witness.  Whis- 
ton's  translation,  with  which  nearly  every  home 
library  is  supplied,  terms  him  on  its  title-page 
"the  learned  and  authentic  Jewish  hi.storian  and 
celebrated  warrior."  Josephus  writes  his  own 
biography.  lie  was  born  in  a.d.  38,  and  was, 
therefore,  a  contemporary  with  the  apostles, 
though  not  with  Christ.  He  lived  certainly 
until  after  a.d.  100;  for  he  makes  mention  in 
his  life^  of  the  death  of  Agrippa  II.,  which 
occurred  in  a.d.  100.  Three  passages  only  in 
the  writings  of  Josephus  relate  at  all  to  Chris- 
tianity. 

In  his  Antiquities  of  the  Jews?  in  speaking  of 
Herod  the  Tetrarch's  defeat  in  battle  by  Aretas, 
King  of  Arabia,  he  says  :  "  Now,  some  of  the 
Jews  thought  that  the  destruction  of  Herod's 
army  came  from  God,  and  that  very  justly  as 
a  punishment  of  what  he  did  against  John,  that 

1  Section  65.  2  Bk.  XVIIl.,  chap,  v.,  §  2. 


60      INTRODUCTION    TO    THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS. 

was  called  the  Baptist  ;  for  Herod  slew  him, 
who  was  a  good  man,  and  commanded  the  Jews 
to  exercise  virtue,  both  as  to  righteousness 
towards  one  another  and  piety  towards  God, 
and  so  to  come  to  baptism  ;  for  that  the  wash- 
ing would  be  acceptable  to  him,  if  they  made 
use  of  it,  not  in  order  to  the  putting  away  of 
some  sins  only,  but  for  the  purification  of  the 
body ;  supposing  still  that  the  soul  was  thor- 
oughly purified  beforehand  by  righteousness. 
Now,  when  others  came  in  crowds  about  him, 
for  they  were  greatly  moved  by  hearing  his 
words,  Herod,  who  feared  lest  the  great  influ- 
ence John  had  over  the  people  might  put  it 
into  his  power  and  inclination  to  raise  rebellion 
(for  they  seemed  to  do  anything  he  should  ad- 
vise), thought  it  best,  by  putting  him  to  death,- 
to  prevent  any  mischief  he  might  cause,  and 
not  bring  himself  into  difficulties  by  sparing  a 
man  who  might  make  him  repent  of  it  when  it 
should  be  too  late.  Accordingly  he  was  sent  a 
prisoner,  out  of  Herod's  suspicious  temper,  to 
Macherus,  the  castle  I  before  mentioned,  and 
was  there  put  to  death.  Now,  the  Jews  had  an 
opinion  that  the  destruction  of  this  army  was 
sent  as  a  punishment  upon  Herod,  and  a  mark 
of  God's  displeasure  against  him." 

This  passage  accords  with  the  account  given 


JEH^ISH  SOURCES.  51 

of  John  the  Baptist  in  the  New  Testament  in 
all  respects  save  one  :  it  fails  to  represent  the 
motive  for  Herod's  action  as  there  stated.  Ac- 
cording to  the  Scripture  narrative  (Luke  iii.  19, 
20;  Matt.  xiv.  3-12),  John  had  aroused  Herod's 
displeasure  by  condemning  him  for  marrying 
his  brother's  wife  while  that  brother  was  still 
living,  two  divorces  being  necessary  to  make 
the  transaction  conform  even  ostensibly  to  the 
requirements  of  the  law.  The  circumstances 
of  Herod's  marriage,  however,  are  given  sub- 
stantially the  same  in  both  accounts  ;  and  the 
nature  of  John's  activity  and  influence  described 
in  similar  terms,  save  that  Josephus  leaves  out 
of  sight  entirely  the  Messianic  element  (John  i. 
23-36;  Matt,  iii.)  of  the  Baptist's  preaching. 
The  attraction  for  the  multitude,  the  moral  pre- 
cepts and  applications,  are  the  same  in  both 
narratives.  Dean  Farrar,  whose  conclusions, 
however,  are  not  always  framed  in  a  purely 
critical  spirit,  says^  of  this  passage,  "It  is  very 
important  as  showing  that  Josephus  must  have 
been  perfectly  well  acquainted  with  the  facts  of 
Christ's  life,  and  that  he  has  passed  them  over, 
in  his  usual  unscrupulous  way,  with  a  reticence 
due  only  to  dislike  or  perplexity.  For  in  speak- 
ing of  Saint  John's  preaching  he  deliberately. 

1  Encyc.  Brit.,  "  Jesus  Christ,"  vol.  xiii.,  p.  658. 


52      INTRODUCTION    TO    THE   LIFE   OF  JESUS. 

and  it  must  be  feared  dishonestly,  excludes  the 
Messianic  element  from  which  it  derived  its 
main  power  and  significance."  That  the  narra- 
tive of  Scripture  has  omitted  nothing,  and  has 
fabricated  less,  is  apparent  from  the  perfectly 
ingenuous  way  in  which  Herod's  apprehensions 
of  John's  influence  over  the  multitudes  —  which 
in  Josephus  are  alone  mentioned  as  cause  for 
John's  imprisonment  —  are  recognized  as  exist- 
ing, although  not  made  the  prime  consideration 
weighing  with  him  ;  for,  when  the  miracles  of 
Christ  were  reported  to  Herod,  he  said,  "that 
John  the  Baptist  was  risen  from  the  dead,  and 
therefore  mighty  works  do  show  forth  in  him  "  ^ 
(Mark  vi.  14.)  The  mighty  works,  the  potent 
influence,  stand  forth  in  both  accounts. 

Whether  Dean  Farrar  has  too  harshly  stig- 
matized the  character  of  Josephus  by  speaking 
of  "  his  usual  unscrupulous  way,"  we  can  better 
judge  a  little  later  on,  after  further  acquaintance 
with  Josephus. 

In  the  same  Antiquities^  the  historian  tells 
of  Ananus,  high  priest  under  the  procurator 
Albinus,  who  took  many  high-handed  measures. 
"  Festu.s,"  he  says,  "  was  now  dead,  and  Albi- 
nus was  but   upon   the   road ;   so   he   [Ananus] 

1  See  Smith's  Bible  Diet.,  "  John  the  Baptist,"  vol.  ii.,  p.  1427. 

2  Bk.  XX.,  chap.  i.x.,  §  i.  , 


JEIVISH  SOURCES.  53 

assembled  the  sanhedrim  of  judges  [illegal  save 
under  authority  of  the  procurator,  and  as  yet 
the  procurator  had  not  arrived],  and  brought 
before  them  the  brother  of  Jesus  who  was 
called  Christ,  whose  name  was  James,  and 
some  others."  It  does  not  concern  us  to  in- 
vestigate the  causes  or  the  results  of  this  act  of 
Ananus.  But  here  comes  before  us  explicit 
mention  of  "Jesus,  who  was  called  Christ,"  and 
also  of  a  brother  named  James. 

This  and  the  previously  cited  passage  arc 
quoted  by  Origen  in  his  essay,  Against  Cclsus} 
and  also  by  Eusebius  in  his  Church  History? 
There  are  no  good  reasons  for  doubting  their 
genuineness.'^  The  third  passage  from  Jose- 
phus,  however,  is  famous  and  much  disputed. 
It  likewise  comes  from  the  Antiquities.^  Criti- 
cism in  general  concedes  that  the  passage  is 
genuine,  though  perhaps  interpolated  in  impor- 
tant i)arts.  As  we  read,  the  portions  deemed 
most  doubtful  by  conservative  scholars  will  be 
placed  in  parentheses.  "  At  this  time  appeared 
a  certain  Jesus,  a  wise  man  (if  indeed  he  can 
be  called  a  man,  for  he  was  a  worker  of  mira- 
cles, a  teacher  of  such  men  as  receive  the  truth 

1  Bk.  I.,  chap,  xlvii.,  and  Bk.  II.,  chap.  xiii. 

2  Bk.  I.,  chap,  xi.,  and  I5k.  II.,  chap,  xjciii. 

3  See  Encyc.  Brit.,  vol.  xiii.,  p.  65S. 
<  Bk.  XVIII.,  chap,  iii.,  §  3. 


54      INTRODUCTION    TO    THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS. 

with  joy),  and  he  drew  to  himself  many  Jews 
(and  many  also  of  the  Greeks.  This  was  the 
Christ).  And  when,  at  the  instigation  of  our 
chief  men,  Pilate  condemned  him  to  the  cross, 
those  who  had  first  loved  him  did  not  fall 
away.  (For  he  appeared  to  them  alive  again 
on  the  third  day,  according  as  the  holy  prophets 
had  declared  this  and  countless  other  marvels 
of  him.)  To  this  day  the  sect  of  Christians, 
called  after  him,   still  exists." 

Renan,  in  his  Life  of  Jcsiis}  referring  to  this 
passage,  says,  "  I  think  the  passage  on  Jesus 
authentic."  Whiston,  in  Dissertation  /.,  accom- 
panying his  translation,  defends  the  genuineness 
stoutly,  citing  its  use  verbatim  by  Eusebius, 
Ambrose,  Jerome,  Isidorus,  and  others  of  later 
date.  Lardner  emphatically  rejects  the  pas- 
sage.2  We  may  hesitate  to  express  ourselves 
quite  so  emphatically  as  the  writer  in  the  Ency- 
clopedia Britannica  ^  on  Josephus  does,  in  saying 
it  is  "  unanimously  believed  to  be,  in  its  present 
form  at  least,  spurious  ;  and  those  who  contend 
even  for  its  partial  genuineness  are  decidedly  in 

1  English  translation,  Introduction,  p.   13. 

2  The  Credibility  of  the  Gospel  History^  vol.  iii.,  pp.  537-542  ; 
Schaff,  Church  History,  vol.  i,,  p,  58,  accepts  it ;  so  also  Edersheim, 
and  Smith  &  Wace's  Dictionary  of  Christiati  Biography,  art.  "  Jose- 
phus." McGiffert  rejects  it  (Eusebius,  Church  History,  p.  98, 
note  II). 

3  Vol.  xiii.,  p.  752, 


JEIVISH  SOURCES.  55 

the  minority."  Certainly  it  is  improbable  that 
a  Jew,  an  uncompromising  Jew,  such  as  Jose- 
phus,  should  have  suggested  that  Jesus  was  by 
any  degree  superhuman  ("  if  indeed  he  can  be 
called  a  man  ")  ;  that  he  should  have  distinctly 
declared  him  to  be  the  Christ,  the  anointed,  or 
the  Messiah  ("This  was  the  Christ  ")  ;  or  should 
have  referred  to  his  resurrection,  except  to  scout 
it,  or  to  marvels  related  of  him  by  the  prophets, 
which  would  be  equivalent  to  confessing  his 
Messianic  character  and  mission.  The  man 
who  could  do  that  would  cease  to  be  a  Jew, 
for  he  would  become  a  Christian  ^  and  would 
espouse  the  claims  of  Christianity,  as  Josej^hus 
by  no  means  gives  indications  of  doing.  That 
the  phrases  regarded  with  suspicion  are  quoted 
by  some  of  the  church  Fathers  does  not  re- 
move, but  tends  rather  to  increase,  the  diffi- 
culty. Yet  no  writer  earlier  than  the  fourth 
century  makes  use  of  these  lines.  Before  that 
time,  therefore,  ample  opportunity  was  open  for 
the  suspected  words  to  creep  in,  —  if  indeed 
anything  can  be  said  to  arc/>,  which  is  wilfully 
inserted  with  the  intention,  however  pious,  of 
making  a  man  say  what  it  is  thought  he  ought 
to  say,  when  in  fact  he  has  not  said  it. 

1  Lardner,  vol.  iii.,  p.  542,  quotes  Dr.  Warburton,  then  bishop  of 
Gloucester,  to  this  same  effect. 


56      INTRODUCTION    TO    THE  LIFE   OF  JESUS. 

It  is  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  to  assure 
one's  self  of  the  truth  concerning  this  passage, 
whether  a  part  of  it  be  genuine,  or  indeed  the 
whole  be  spurious.  It  is  not  safe  to  dogmatize. 
To  be  swayed  by  predilections  may  be  our  fate, 
but  is  not  our  intention.  Were  the  entire  pas- 
sage wanting,  there  would  remain  the  two  pre- 
ceding passages  which  we  have  cited,  neither  of 
them  narratives  of  Christ's  words  or  acts,  yet 
such  mention,  obscure  and  purposely  incomplete, 
as  might  naturally  be  expected  from  a  Jew.  Jo- 
sephus  and  Tacitus  and  Pliny  were  contempora- 
ries. The  two  Roman  writers  give  unambiguous 
testimony  to  Christ.  Why  does  not  the  Jew.? 
Are  there  motives  for  evasion  in  his  case  which 
are  wanting  with  the  Romans  1  Certainly,  we 
must  answer  ;  for  all  that  the  Jew  might  say 
concerning  the  Christ  would  reflect  unfavorably 
upon  the  Jewish  nation  and  rulers,  stated  how- 
ever so  cautiously.  A  Jewish  historian  could 
not  willingly  put  before  the  eyes  of  the  Roman 
world  an  account  of  the  expectations  raised 
amongst  his  people,  the  fickle  aversion  and 
disappointment,  and  the  cruel,  unauthorized 
conduct  of  the  rulers  and  populace  in  accom- 
plishing the  death  of  Jesus,  when  the  Roman 
governor  publicly  declared  the  charges  adduced 
as  unproven.     It  was  not  a  page  of  honor  to 


JEIVISH  SOURCES.  57 

set  before  the  workl  ;  and  Josephus  is  one  who 
writes,  not  for  the  private  perusal  of  his  coun- 
trymen, but  for  a  wider  circle  of  readers  ;  the 
Romans  are  in  his  thoughts,  as  his  evident  sat- 
isfaction shows  when  in  his  Autobiography  '  he 
states  how  his  histories  were  received  by  the 
Roman  emperor  and  commended  by  autograph 
letters.  Josephus  may  profess  perfect  candor 
and  love  of  truth,^  but  the  motive  for  suppres- 
sion of  facts  concerning  Christ  is  too  strong  to 
be  disregarded.  The  unscrupulousness  of  Jose- 
phus, to  which  Dean  Farrar  referred,  must  be 
conceded. 

This  becomes  more  apparent  when  we  ob- 
serve in  Josephus's  writings  evident  imitations 
of,  or  allusions  to,  incidents  recorded  in  the 
New  Testament.  In  his  Aiitobiogj-a/y/iy^  ]osc- 
phus  describes  his  own  youthful  precocity 
in  terms  similar  to  those  used  by  Luke  (ii. 
42-52)  of  our  Saviour.  "  I  made  mighty  profi- 
ciency in  the  improvements  of  my  learning," 
he  says,  "and  appeared  to  have  both  a  great 
memory  and  understanding.  Moreover,  when 
I  was  a  child  and  about  fourteen  years  of  age, 
I  was  commended  by  all  for  the  love  I  had  to 
learning ;   on   which    account    the    high    piiests 

1  Section  65.  "^  Sec  Autobioi^rafhy,  §  65. 

8  Section  2. 


5S      INTRODUCTION    TO    THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS. 

and  principal  men  of  the  city  came  then  fre- 
quently to  me  together,  in  order  to  know  my 
opinion  about  the  accurate  understanding  of 
points  of  the  law."  When  he  visited  Rome 
also,  the  narrative  of  his  experiences  so  resem- 
bles Paul's  (Acts  xxvii.)  as  to  suggest  imita- 
tion :  "  I  came  to  Rome,  though  it  were  by  a 
great  number  of  hazards  by  sea ;  for  as  our  ship 
was  drowned  in  the  Adriatic  sea,  we  that  were 
in  it,  being  about  six  hundred  in  number,  swam 
for  our  lives  all  the  night  ;  when  upon  the  first 
appearance  of  the  day,  and  upon  our  sight  of 
a  ship  of  Cyrene,  I  and  some  others,  eighty  in 
all,  by  God's  providence  prevented  the  rest,  and 
were  taken  up  into  the  other  ship."^  But  the 
strongest  proof  of  his  unscrupulousness  is  found 
in  the  turn  which  he  gives  his  narrative  in  that 
famous  place  in  which  Christ  is  mentioned  ;  for 
in  the  very  next  section,^  following  the  allusion 
to  the  existence  still  of  the  sect  called  Chris- 
tians, Josephus  abruptly  introduces  a  disgusting 
story  of  the  perfidy  practised  upon  the  inno- 
cence of  a  Roman  lady,  a  story  which  is  out 
of  sequence  with  the  narrative  following,  as 
well  as  that  which  goes  before,  and  can  be 
accounted  for  only  as  a  sly  and  sordid  allusion 

1  Autobiography,  §  3. 

2  Antiquities,  Bk.  XVIII.,  chap,  iii.,  §  4, 


JEiVlSH  SOURCES.  59 

to  the  current  declarations  concerning  the  in- 
carnation of  Christ.  This  unclean  tale  is  to 
be  met  with  frequently  in  sceptical  writings  of 
a  later  day  ;  Origen  is  obliged  to  reply  to  it  in 
the  treatise  which  Celsus  had  thrust  upon  the 
world.  1 

The  Talmud  2  is  the  name  applied  to  the 
Jew's  copy  of  the  law,  with  explanations  at- 
tached which  had  been  accumulating  for  cen- 
turies. We  might  term  it  the  Jew's  Bible,  or 
rather  his  Commentary  on  the  Bible.  The 
Talmud  was  reduced  to  writing  by  Rabbi  Je- 
huda  Hakkodesh,  who  died  in  a.d.  190;  and, 
therefore,  what  it  contains  belongs  to  a  period 
not  later  than  the  second  century.  In  the  Tal- 
mud, allusions  to  Jesus  are  to  be  found  about 
twenty  times,^  but  are  invariably  characterized 
by  hatred  and  fear.  He  is  called  "  that  man," 
"he  whom  we  may  not  name,"  "the  Nazarcnc," 
"  the  fool,"  "  the  hung,"  "  Absalom,"  "  Ben 
Stada,"  "  Ben  Pandera."  They  make  an  ana- 
gram of  his  name,  putting  into  Hebrew  letters 
his  Greek  name  so  as  to  mean,  "  May  his  mem- 
ory be  destroyed  and  his  name  be  blotted  out." 
The   Talmud    says   that   Jesus   was   a   pupil   of 

1  Origen,  Against  Celsus.  Bk.  I.,  chap,  x.xxii.     See  above,  p.  36. 

2  The  Talmud  is  described  in  Edersheim's  The  Life  and  Times 
of  Jesus  the  Messiah^  vol.  i.,  chap.  viii. 

3  See  Farrar's  The  Life  of  Christy  Excursus  xii. 


60      INTRODUCTION    TO    THE  LIFE   OF  JESUS. 

Joshua  Ben  Perachiah  (who  lived  a  century 
before),  accompanied  him  into  Egypt,  there 
learned  magic,  was  a  seducer  of  the  people,  was 
tried,  condemned,  first  stoned,  then  hung  as  a 
blasphemer  after  forty  days,  during  which  no 
one  had  come  forward  to  speak  in  his  favor. 
The  Talmud  undisguisedly  discloses  the  Jewish 
animosity  which  Josephus  more  craftily  en- 
deavors to  ignore,  but  does  not  successfully 
conceal. 

These  Jewish  sources  cover  a  narrow  range. 
Philo  says  nothing.  Josephus  adds  little  that 
is  unquestionably  his.  The  Talmud  casts  slurs 
and  shows  contempt.  By  so  doing  the  Talmud 
offers  an  explanation  of  the  scantiness  of  testi- 
mony from  all  other  Jewish  sources.  Contempt, 
hatred,  and  fear  seem  to  have  combined  to  still 
the  voice  and  stay  the  pen  of  Jewish  witnesses. 


CHAPTER   V. 

THE    CHRISTIAN    SOURCES THE    CATACOMBS. 

The  Catacombs  of  Rome,  though  not  them- 
selves admissible  as  documentary  evidence  to 
the  life  of  Christ,  come,  nevertheless,  legiti- 
mately into  the  range  of  our  topics,  because  of 
the  symbols  and  inscriptions  which  their  walls 
and  contents  have  preserved  out  of  the  first 
three  centuries.  They  add  nothing  to  our 
knowledge  of  the  details  of  that  life,  but  are 
corroborative  of  its  historic  verity,  and  its  ex- 
traordinary effect  upon  men  of  Rome  in  those 
centuries. 

The  Catacombs  ^  are  great  underground  cem- 
eteries, round  about  Rome,  hewn  out  of  the 
solid  rock.  Narrow  galleries,  three  or  four  feet 
wide,  having  shelf-like  receptacles  in  their  walls 
for  the  dead,  and  expanding  sometimes  into 
larger  burial  rooms  (cnbicula),  or  into  chapels, 
beneath  and  above  each  other  in  places,  extend 

1  See  "  The  Catacombs,"  Encyc.  Brit.,  vol.  v.,  p.  206,  by  Canon 
Venables ;  Events  and  Epochs  in  Religious  History,  by  James  Free- 
man Clarke,  pp.  1-45  ;  "  The  Catacombs  of   Rome,"'  The  Century, 
vol.  xiii.  (35),  January,  1S8S,  pp.  335-343,  by  Dr.  Philip  Schaff. 
61 


62      INTRODUCTION   TO   THE  LIFE   OF  JESUS. 

their  length  to  nearly  four  hundred  miles,  and 
contain,  by  count,  upwards  of  seventy  thousand 
graves.  De'  Rossi  estimates  the  number  of  in- 
terments as  more  than  three  millions.  These 
underground  retreats  were  first  used  as  simple 
places  of  burial,  not  for  secrecy,  but  to  satisfy 
two  desires:  (i)  to  avoid  the  necessity  of  cre- 
mating bodies  according  to  the  practice  of 
Rome  at  that  time  ;  and  (2)  to  have  in  death, 
while  awaiting  the  resurrection,  the  companion- 
ship of  fellow-believers.  Worship,  provided  for 
by  the  chapels  and  incidental  to  burial-service, 
was  forbidden  by  an  edict  of  Valerian  in  a.d. 
257.  At  times  of  persecution  the  ramifying 
passages  and  hidden  chambers  became  recesses 
for  concealment.  After  Constantine's  accession 
in  A.D.  312,  when  Christianity  was  recognized 
as  the  authorized  religion,  the  Catacombs  be- 
came the  object  of  pious  resort,  and  so  con- 
tinued until,  after  the  taking  of  Rome  by  Alaric 
in  A.D.  410,  and  the  subsequent  degeneracy  of 
the  imperial  city,  their  approaches  were  sealed 
up,  and  their  very  existence  forgotten  through 
all  the  Middle  Ages.  In  the  latter  part  of  the 
fifteenth  century  some  Italian  laborers,  exca- 
vating building  material,  stumbled  upon  this 
Under-Rome ;  and,  by  patient  exploration  since, 
these  dark  recesses  have  been  made  to  yield  up 


THR  CATACOMBS.  G3 

their  secrets.  Antonio  Bosio,  often  called  "the 
Columbus  of  the  Catacombs,"  who  died  in  1627, 
spent  thirty-six  years  of  his  life  in  exploring 
them. 

With  the  symbols,  monograms,  and  pictures, 
there  are  few  dates  ;  but  the  forms  and  pigments 
employed,  as  well  as  other  indications,  help  to 
fix  their  time  closely.  The  vine,  the  fish,  the 
miracle  at  Cana,  the  multiplication  of  the  loaves 
and  fishes,  the  raising  of  Lazarus,  and  the  tri- 
umphal entrance  of  Jesus  into  Jerusalem,  are 
the  most  frequent  representations.  The  fish  is 
particularly  common,  because  it  was  taken  as  a 
symbol  of  Christ,  the  Greek  letters  of  its  name 
constituting  an  anagram  of  the  phrase,  "Jesus 
Christ,  Son  of  God,  Saviour."  *  One  of  these 
fishes,  in  the  cemetery  of  Domitilla,  is  dated  by 
De'  Rossi,  a  recognized  authority,  as  of  the  first 
century.  Belonging  to  the  first  three  centuries 
(although  the  first  to  bear  a  date  is  of  a.d.  291), 
are  numerous  monograms  made  up  of  the  first 
two  letters  of  Christ's  name.^ 

No  fewer  than  eleven  thousand  inscriptions 
have  been  recorded.  They  invariably  ascribe 
peace  to   the  departed,  and   speak  of  a  future 

'  1X0Y2  :  \-r)aov<:  X-piu-To?  0-€oO  Y-<b?  5-u»T^p. 


64      INTRODUCTION   TO   THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS. 

life.  One  has  the  date  217.  Another  indicates 
its  time  as  during  the  reign  of  Hadrian,  who 
succeeded  Trajan  in  a.d.  117,  in  the  following 
words  :  "  In  Christ.  In  the  time  of  the  Em- 
peror Adrian,  Marius,  a  young  military  officer, 
who  had  lived  long  enough  when  with  his 
blood  he  gave  up  his  life  for  Christ.  At  length 
rested  in  peace.  The  well-deserving  set  up 
this  with  tears  and  in  fear  on  the  6th  Ides  of 
December."^ 

The  number  of  martyrs  buried  in  the  Cata- 
combs is  very  great.  One  tradition  says  that 
in  one  of  the  underground  chapels  (that  of  St. 
Calixtus)  were  174,000  martyrs  laid.  Tombs 
are  inscribed  with  the  statement  that  they  con- 
tain the  bodies  of  30,  40,  1 50,  and  in  one  in- 
stance of   550  martyrs. 

What  do  these  silent  vaults  and  passages  of 
Rome  declare }  Here  have  been  deposited, 
beginning  with  the  first  century  and  extend- 
ing into  the  fourth,  the  bones  of  millions  of 
the  dead  of  one  faith,  dying  many  of  them  be- 
cause of  their  faith,  glorying  in  Christ,  ascrib- 
ing faith,  hope,  peace,  and  joy  to  Christ.  Can 
this  silent  city,  with  its  stone-written  testimony, 
its   chambers   of    prayer,   and    its   multitude  of 

1  See  The  Literature  of  the  Second  Century,  by  F.  R.  Wynne, 
D.D.,  J.  H.  Bernard,  B.D.,  and  S.  Hemphill,  B.D.,  p.  19. 


THE  CATACOMBS.  05 

mute  inhabitants,  be  accounted  for  save  as 
indubitable  evidence  to  the  life  of  Christ  in 
form  and  influence  similar  to  the  life  of  the 
Gospel  narrative  ? 


CHAPTER   VI. 

THE    CHRISTIAN    SOURCES THE    APOCRYPHAL 

NEW    TESTAMENT    WRITINGS. 

The  apocryphal  writings  now  referred  to  ^  be- 
long to  the  fourth  century  and  later,  though  the 
second  century  had  some  of  their  traditions. 
There  are  twenty-two  such  writings  centering 
about  three  topics:  (i)  the  history  of  Joseph 
and  Mary  before  the  birth  of  Jesus  ;  (2)  the  in- 
fancy of  Jesus ;  and  (3)  the  history  of  Pilate. 
Besides  these,  there  are  thirteen  apocryphal 
Acts  of  different  apostles,  which  are  aside  from 
our  purpose,  because  not  pertaining  directly  to 
the  life  of  Christ.  The  apocryphal  accounts  of 
his  life  scarcely  deserve  to  be  classified  with 
the  other  Christian  sources.  They  are  scarcely 
Christian  in  any  sense,  as  a  perusal  of  them  at 
once  discloses.  They  are  false  in  pretension, 
grotesque  in  matter,  and  wholly  unreliable.  An 
epitome  of  two  will  indicate  the  character  of  all. 

1  Another  group  is  treated  in  Chapter  VIII.  These  now  consid- 
ered have  never  had  currency  in  the  church  as  authentic.  See 
Hone's  Apocryphal  New  Testament,  pp.  1 7-24  ;  The  Ante-Nicene 
Fathers  (Christian  Lit.  Co.),  vol.  viii.,  pp.  349-476  ;  The  Literature 
of  the  Second  Century,  pp.  97-136. 
66 


/tPOCRYPHAL    NEIV   TFSTAMFNT   JVRITINGS.      ^7 

T/ic  Gospel  of  the  Nativity  of  Mary  gives  a 
miraculous  account  of  Mary's  childhood.  Mary, 
born  of  Joachim  and  Anna,  as  foretold  by  an 
angel,  when  Anna  was  old  and  barren,  was 
brought  at  three  years  of  age  to  the  steps 
of  the  temple,  where  there  were  fifteen  stairs 
to  ascend,  according  to  the  fifteen  Psalms  of 
Degrees  (Ps.  cxx.-cxxxiv.).  While  the  parents 
were  putting  aside  their  garments,  the  account 
relates,  "  In  the  meantime  the  Virgin  of  the 
Lord  in  such  a  manner  went  up  all  the  stairs 
one  after  another,  without  the  help  of  any  one 
to  lead  her  or  lift  her,  that  any  one  would 
have  judged  from  hence  that  she  was  of  perfect 
age.  Thus  the  Lord  did,  in  the  infancy  of 
his  Virgin,  work  this  extraordinary  work,  and 
evidence  by  this  miracle  how  great  she  was  like 
to  be  hereafter."  She  then  remained  in  the 
temple  till  fourteen  years  of  age.  At  that  age, 
according  to  Jewish  custom,  all  maidens  must 
be  betrothed.  Mary  refused,  because  of  a  vow- 
she  had  made  to  keep  herself  for  God.  The 
high  priest  had  respect  for  her  vow,  and  yet 
was  unwilling  to  disregard  the  custom.  He 
called,  thereupon,  a  council  of  the  principal  per- 
sons in  Jerusalem.  They  quoted  the  words  of 
Isaiah,  "  There  shall  come  forth  a  rod  out  of 
Jesse,"  and  advised  a  test.     Accordingly  all  the 


68      INTRODUCTION   TO    THE  LIFE   OF  JESUS. 

marriageable  men  of  the  house  of  David  were 
required  to  produce  their  rods  before  the  altar. 
Joseph's  alone  budded.  The  sign  was  accepted. 
Mary  was  betrothed  to  him,  but  she  kept  her- 
self still  a  virgin.  Shortly  the  angel  made  to 
her  the  annunciation  of  conception,  and  she 
bore  the  child  Jesus. 

Of  the  infancy  of  Jesus  these  documents 
have  many  marvellous  tales.  The  Gospel  of 
Thomas  contains  the  following  :  Jesus,  when 
but  five  years  old,  playing  in  the  ford  of  a 
mountain  stream,  "  collected  the  flowing  waters 
into  pools,  and  made  them  clear  immediately, 
and  by  a  word  alone  he  made  them  obey  him." 
He  fashioned  twelve  sparrows  of  clay  on  the 
Sabbath.  Jews  reported  it  to  his  father,  who 
came  to  administer  reproof.  The  child  clapped 
his  hands,  saying,  "  Off  you  go,"  and  the  spar- 
rows straightway  became  living  and  flew  away. 
A  boy  took  a  branch,  and  let  the  water  out  of 
the  pool,  whereat  Jesus  in  anger  said,  "  O 
wicked,  impious,  and  foolish  !  what  harm  did 
the  pools  and  the  water  do  thee  ^  Behold  even 
now  thou  shalt  be  dried  up  like  a  tree,  and  thou 
shalt  not  bring  forth  either  leaves,  or  root,  or 
fruit."  "And  straightway  that  boy  was  quite 
dried  up."  At  another  time  when  a  boy  ran 
against  him  in  the  village  street,  he  exclaimed. 


/IPOCRYPHAL    hlF.lV    TFST/1MFNT    IVRITINGS.      69 

"  Thou  shalt  not  go  back  the  way  thou  earnest." 
And  that  boy  immediately  fell  down  dead. 
When  the  parents  complained  to  Joseph,  they 
were  struck  blind  in  consequence.  Then  Jo- 
seph pulled  Jesus  by  the  ear,  "  pulled  it  hard," 
the  narrative  says;  "and  the  child  was  very 
angry,  and  said  to  him  :  '  It  is  enough  for  thee 
to  seek  and  not  to  find ;  and  most  certainly 
thou  hast  not  done  wisely.  Knowest  thou  not 
that  I  am  thine  ?  Do  not  trouble  mc.'  "  After- 
wards, when  placed  under  a  learned  teacher, 
Zacchaeus,  he  immediately  repeated  the  letters 
correctly  from  Alpha  to  Omega,  and  put  Zac- 
chaeus to  shame  for  not  being  able  to  explain 
the  letter  A.  One  day,  while  he  was  at  play 
with  some  children  in  the  upper  part  of  a 
house,  one  fell  to  the  ground  and  was  killed. 
All  the  other  children  ran  away.  The  parents 
of  the  dead  child  came  with  reproaches,  and 
threatened  Jesus.  Me  leaped  forthwith  down 
from  the  roof,  and  called  to  the  child,  "  Zeno, 
stand  up,  and  tell  me;  did  I  throw  thee  down.'" 
Zeno  stood  up  immediately,  and  replied,  "  Cer- 
tainly not,  my  lord  ;  thou  didst  not  throw  me 
down,  but  hast  raised  me  up."  Once  a  young 
man  was  splitting  wood,  and  cut  his  foot  in  two, 
causing  death  from  loss  of  blood.  Jesus  pushed 
through  the  assembled  crowd,  pressed  the  parts 


70      INTRODUCTION    TO    THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS. 

of  the  foot  together,  restoring  the  young  man 
immediately,  and  said,  "  Rise  up  now,  spht  the 
wood,  and  remember  me."  When  six  years 
old,  returning  from  the  fountain  with  a  pitcher 
of  water,  he  broke  the  pitcher,  but  brought  the 
water  home  in  his  cloak.  At  eight  years  of 
age,  while  his  father  was  sowing  corn,  he  sowed 
one  grain,  and  gathered  from  it  eight  hundred 
bushels,  which  he  distributed  freely  amongst 
the  poor  of  the  village,  and  gave  his  father  a 
large  remainder.  When  Joseph  was  making 
a  couch  for  a  rich  man,  and  one  piece  of  wood 
was  too  short,  Jesus  stretched  it  to  the  requi- 
site length.  One  teacher,  who  reproved  him 
at  school,  he  cursed  and  caused  to  swoon  away. 
Another,  who  flattered  him,  he  blessed.  His 
brother  James  was  gathering  wood,  and  was 
bitten  by  a  viper.  Jesus  blew  on  the  bite ; 
"the  pain  ceased  directly,  and  the  beast  burst, 
and  instantly  James  remained  safe  and  sound." 
A  neighbor's  child  died;  Jesus  touched  it,  and 
said,  "  I  say  to  thee,  child,  be  not  dead,  but 
live,  and  be  with  thy  mother."  And  directly 
it  looked  up  and  laughed  ;  and  he  said  to  the 
woman,  "  Take  it,  and  give  it  milk,  and  remem- 
ber me."  A  man  building  a  house,  died.  Jesus 
took  him  by  the  hand,  and  said,  "  Man,  I  say 
to  thee,  arise,  and  go  on  with  thy  work." 


/tPOCRYPHAL   hIElV   TF.STAMFNT   IVRITINGS.      71 

Such  arc  the  incidents  recorded  in  T/ic  Gos- 
pel of  Thomas,  given  in  the  order  of  their 
occurrence.  There  exist,  besides,  The  Prote- 
vangeVinvL  of  James,  The  Gospel  of  Psendo- 
Mattheiv,  The  History  of  Joseph  the  Carpenter, 
The  Arabic  Gospel  of  the  Saviour  s  Infaney,  The 
Gospel  of  Nicodevius,  The  Letter  of  Pontius  Pi- 
late, The  Report  of  Pilate,  The  Giving  up  of 
Pilate,  The  Death  of  Pilate,  The  Narrative  of 
Joseph  (of  Arimathea),  and  The  Avenging  of  the 
Saviour.  It  is  not  necessary  to  reproduce  or 
describe  them  in  detail.  In  exaggeration  and 
improbabiHty  they  resemble  The  Gospel  of 
Thomas.  They  carry  their  refutation  on  their 
face,  and  have  deceived  no  one.  With  us  now 
they  have  significance  chiefly  in  showing  what 
the  products  of  the  imagination  are  like  in 
dealing  with  the  life  of  Christ  ;  and  thus,  by 
contrast,  they  assist  in  vindicating  the  trust- 
worthiness of  the   New  Testament  Gospels. 


CHAPTER    VII. 

THE    CHRISTIAN    SOURCES  —  EXTRA-BIBLICAL 
SAYINGS    OF    JESUS. 

The  world  has  exercised  a  remarkable  self- 
restraint  in  not  attempting  to  foist  upon  the 
credulous,  pretended  writings  of  Christ.  The 
apostles  have  been  personated  by  innumerable 
writers,  sometimes  with  pious,  sometimes  with 
fraudulent,  intent.^  Plato,  Aristotle,  and  a  large 
company  of  lesser  prominent  men  of  both  an- 
cient and  modern  times,  have  been  imitated  in 
a  multitude  of  epistles  and  documents.  But 
the  extraordinary  character  of  Jesus  Christ  has 
been  respected  by  friend  and  foe  alike,  as  in- 
imitable. One  solitary  example  exists  of  an 
attempt  to  palm  off  upon  men  a  piece  of  litera- 
ture as  his.  It  purports  to  be  an  epistle  writ- 
ten by  Christ  to  Abgarus,  king  of  Edessa, 
who  had  applied  to  him  by  letter  for  healing 
from  disease.  The  whole  correspondence  is  as 
follows  :  ^  — 

1  See  "  On  the  Moral  Character  of  Pseudonymous  Books,"  by 
Professor  J.  S.  Candish,  D.D.,  The  Expositor,  4th  series,  vol.  iv., 
pp.  91,  262. 

2  It  is  preserved  by  Eusebius,  Church  History,  Bk.  I.,  chap.  xiii. 

72 


EXTR^-BIBUCy4L   S/iYlNGS   OF  JESUS.         73 

"  Abgarus,  ruler  of  Edessa.  to  Jesus  the  excellent  Sa- 
viour, who  has  appeared  in  the  country  of  Jerusalem, 
greeting.  I  have  heard  the  reports  of  thee  and  of  thy 
cures,  as  performed  by  thee  without  medicines  or  herbs. 
For  it  is  said  that  thou  makest  the  blind  to  see  and  the 
lame  to  walk,  that  thou  cleansesl  lepers  and  castest  out 
impure  spirits  and  demons,  and  that  thou  healest  those 
afflicted  with  lingering  disease,  and  raisest  the  dead.  And 
having  heard  all  these  things  concerning  thee,  I  have  con- 
cluded that  one  of  two  things  must  be  true :  either  thou 
art  God.  and  having  come  down  from  heaven  thou  doest 
these  things  ;  or  else  thou,  who  doest  these  things,  art  the 
Son  of  God.  I  have  therefore  written  to  thee  to  ask  thee 
that  thou  wouldst  take  the  trouble  to  come  to  me  and 
heal  the  disease  which  I  have.  For  1  have  heard  that 
the  Jews  are  plotting  to  injure  thee.  But  I  have  a  very 
small,  yet  noble  city,  which  is  great  enough  for  us  both." 

The  reputed  reply  of  Jesus  reads  as  fol- 
lows :  — 

"  Blessed  art  thou  who  hast  believed  in  me  without 
having  seen  me.  For  it  is  written  concerning  me,  that 
they  who  have  seen  me  will  not  believe  in  me,  and  that 
they  who  have  not  seen  me  will  believe  and  be  saved. 
But  in  regard  to  what  thou  hast  written  me,  that  I  should 
come  to  thee,  it  is  necessary  for  mc  to  fulfil  all  things 
here  for  which  I  have  been  sent,  and  after  I  have  fulfilled 
them  thus  to  be  taken  up  again  to  him  that  sent  me. 
But  after  I  have  been  taken  up,  I  will  send  to  thee  one  of 
my  disciples,  that  he  may  heal  thy  disea.se  and  give  life 
to  thee  and  thine." 

Eusebius  records  this  correspondence  with 
all   seriousness,  as  an  example  of  the  manner 


74      INTRODUCTION    TO    THE   LIFE   OF  JESUS. 

in  which  "  the  divinity  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour 
Jesus  Christ "  was  "  noised  abroad  among  all 
men  on  account  of  his  wonder-working  power." 
The  accompanying  narrative  states  that,  after 
Christ's  ascension,  the  apostle  Thomas  sent  to 
Abgarus  a  certain  Thaddeus,  one  of  the  Sev- 
enty, who  healed  the  king,  and  remained  in 
the  country  preaching  the  gospel  with  great 
success. 

It  is  an  historic  fact  that  several  kings  of 
Edessa,  who  reigned  from  99  b.c.  to  a.d.  217, 
were  named  Abgarus,  and  one  was  on  the 
throne  from  a.d.  13  to  a.d.  50;^  it  is  a  fact 
also  that  in  the  latter  part  of  the  second  cen- 
tury, when  another  Abgarus  was  in  power, 
Christianity  had  a  cordial  and  general  recep- 
tion in  Syria  ;  but  there  are  no  other  evidences 
whatever  to  connect  Jesus  and  Abgarus,  or 
to  substantiate  this  correspondence.  Eusebius 
says  that  these  letters  were  preserved  in  the 
public  registers  kept  in  the  archives  of  Edessa, 
and  were  literally  translated  from  the  Syriac 
language.2  But  Eusebius  writes  in  the  fourth 
century,  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  after  the 
general  introduction  of  Christianity  into  Syria, 

1  See  "  Eusebius,"  The  Nicenc  and  Post-Nicene  Fathers,  vol.  i., 
p.  100,  note  I,  by  McGiffert. 

2  Church  History,  Bk.  I.,  chap.  xiii. 


EXTRA-RIBLICAI.   SAYINGS   OF  JESUS.         75 

when  the  fabrication  of  this  correspondence 
would  have  been  possible  and  natural.  He  is 
undoubtedly  led  astray  by  his  desire  for  words 
of  the  Master,  and  his  lack  of  critical  acumen. 
There  is  no  earlier  witness  for  the  epistles  ; 
indeed,  there  is  no  later  witness,  for  the  subse- 
quent references  to,  and  later  embellishments 
of,  this  intercourse  are  all  evidently  drawn  from 
Eusebius.  The  documents  which  he  usctl,  how- 
ever, have  come  to  light.  They  were  discov- 
ered in  the  Nitrian  Monastery  in  Lower  Egypt 
in  1 841-1847,  and  carried  to  London  and  lodged 
in  the  British  Museum.  But  their  spuriousness 
is  acknowledged  by  critics.^ 

Doubtless  this  forgery  was  suggested  by  the 
words  of  Matthew  (iv.  24)  :  "  Mis  fame  went 
throughout  all  Syria ;  and  they  brought  unto 
him  all  sick  people  that  were  taken  with  divers 
diseases."  But  there  is  no  hint  whatever  in  the 
Gospels  that  Jesus  ever  wrote  a  word,  or  char- 
acter of  any  kind,  save  at  that  time  when,  be- 
fore the  woman  taken  in  adultery,  he  stooped 
down  and  wrote  on  the  ground  (John  viii.  6,  8). 

1  McGiffert,  editor  of  "  Eusebius,"  in  The  Nicenc  and  Post- 
Nicene  Fathers,  2d  series,  vol.  i.,  p.  100,  note  5,  says:  "  The  apoc- 
ryphal character  of  these  letters  is  no  longer  a  matter  of  dispute, 
though  Cave  and  Grabe  defend  their  genuineness,  and  even  in  the 
present  century  Rinck  has  had  the  hardihood  to  enter  the  lists  in 
their  defence ;  but  we  know  of  no  one  else  who  values  his  critical 
reputation  so  little  as  to  venture  upon  the  task." 


76      INTRODUCTION    TO    THE   LIFE   OF  JESUS. 

And  even  this  incident  does  not  belong  to  the 
oldest  texts  of  the  Gospel  of  John,  and  has 
been  set  aside  by  the  latest  editors. ^  Jesus 
Christ  left  behind  no  autobiography,  no  mem- 
oirs, no  diary,  no  epistles,  —  no  writings  what- 
ever, excepting  upon  the  hearts  of  men.  He 
contented  himself  with  imparting  himself. 

The  four  Gospels  contain  the  record  of  that 
impartation  as  seen,  received,  and  apprehended 
by  men.  Yet  outside  the  four  Gospels  sev- 
eral reputed  sayings  of  our  Lord  have  been 
preserved.2  The  writer  of  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles  reports  one  from  the  lips  of  Paul : 
"  Remember  the  words  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  how 
he  said.  It  is  more  blessed  to  give  than  to 
receive"  (Acts  xx.  35).  Codex  Bezae  ("  D," 
preserved  now  at  Cambridge,  England,  the  fifth 
uncial  manuscript  in  importance)  gives,  after 
Luke  vi.  4,  "  On  the  same  day,  having  seen 
one  working  on  the  Sabbath,  he  said  to  him, 
O  man,  if  indeed  thou  knowest  what  thou  doest, 

1  Westcott  and  Hort,  as  also  Tischendorf  and  Tregelles,  and  the 
majority  of  critics.     See  Revised  V^ersion. 

2  A.  Resch,  in  Gebhardt  and  Harnack's  Texte  und  Untersuch- 
ungen,  vol.  iv.,  entitled  "Agrapha"  (i.e.,  "the  unrecorded  "),  pub- 
lished at  Leipzig  in  1889,  has  collected  one  hundred  and  seventy- 
seven  of  these  sayings,  seventy-four  of  which  he  considers  genuine, 
and  one  hundred  and  three  apocryphal.  Rev.  Walter  Lock,  in  The 
Expositor,  Jannary,  1894,  pp.  1-16,  and  February,  1894,  pp.  97-109, 
discusses  Resch's  conclusions. 


EXTRA-BIBLICAL   SAYINGS   OF  JESUS.         77 

thuu  art  blessed ;  but  if  thou  knowest  not, 
thou  art  cursed,  and  art  a  transgressor  of  the 
law."  Bishop  Westcott  says  of  this,  "  It  is 
evident  that  the  saying  rests  on  some  real 
incident."  ^  Code.x  Bezae  has  also,  after  Matt. 
XX.  28,  "  But  ye  seek  to  increase  from  little, 
and  from  greater  to  be  less."  And  Bishop 
Westcott  says  of  this  also,  "  It  seems  to  be 
a  genuine  fragment."  ^ 

It  was  thought  at  one  time  that  77ie  Epistle 
of  Barnabas  contained  a  saying  of  Christ.^  Old 
editions  give  the  expression,  "  The  Son  of  God 
says.  Let  us  resist  all  iniquity,  and  hold  it  in 
hatred."  This  is  the  reading  of  the  Latin  ver- 
sion ;  but  since  the  Greek  text  has  been  dis- 
covered, first  by  Tischendorf  in  the  Sinaitic 
manuscript,  and  later  by  Bryennios  along  with 
The  Teaching  of  the  Twelve  Apostles,  it  has 
been  found  that  the  Latin  form  sicut  dicit  filins 
dci  had  stolen  into  the  place  of  sicut  decet  filios 
dei,^  and  had  thus  prevented  the  text  from  say- 
ing, "  As  becomes  the  sons  of  God,  let  us  resist 
all  iniquity,  and  hold   it    in    hatred."     The  ex- 

1  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  the  Gospels,  Appendix  C,  p.  446, 
note  3. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  446,  note  4. 
8  Barn.,  cliap.  v. 

■*  Sec  Harnack,  Patrum  Apostolicorum  Opera,  Barn.  Efis.,  p.  18  ; 
The  Ante-Nicene  Fathers,  vol.  i.,  p.  139. 


78      INTRODUCTION   TO    THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS. 

pression  in  the  same  epistle,^  "  Thus  he  saith, 
They  who  wish  to  see  me  and  lay  hold  on  my 
kingdom  must  receive  me  by  affliction  and  suf- 
fering," may  perhaps  be  an  adaptation  of  Matt, 
xvi.  24,  or  of  Acts  xiv.  22,  and  not  an  inde- 
pendent saying. 

A  common  saying  ascribed  to  Jesus  among 
the  early  church  Fathers  is,  "  Show  yourselves 
as  tried  money-changers."  Origen,  in  his  com- 
mentary on  Matt.  xvii.  31,  and  on  John  xix.,  and 
Epiphanius,^  bishop  of  Constantia  (Salanus)  in 
Cyprus  from  a.d.  367  to  a.d.  402,  record  this 
as  Christ's  utterance.  Epiphanius  has  also,^  "  I 
came  to  put  an  end  to  sacrifices,  and  unless  ye 
cease  from  sacrificing  (God's)  anger  will  not 
cease  from  you."  Clement  of  Alexandria  cites 
from  T/ie  Gospel  to  the  Hebrews  as  the  words 
of  Christ  :  "  He  that  wonders  shall  reign ;  and 
he  that  reigns  shall  rest."^  Origen  gives: 
"Jesus  said  to  his  disciples,  Ask  great  things, 
and  the  small  shall  be  added  unto  you ;  and  ask 
heavenly  things,  and  the  earthly  shall  be  added 

1  Barn.,  chap.  vii. 

2  Epiphanius  quotes  this  from  Apelles,  a  Gnostic  writer  two  cen- 
turies before  him.  Clement  of  Alexandria  quotes  it  as  Scripture 
{Strom.,  Bk.,  I.,  chap,  xxviii.),  and  refers  to  it  three  other  times 
{Strom.  II.  iv. ;  VI.  x. ;  VII.  xv.).  It  occurs  also  three  times  in  the 
Clementine  Homilies  (II.  51  ;  III.  51  ;  XVIII.  20). 

8  Penarion,  Bk.  XXX.,  chap.  16. 
4  Stromata,  Bk.  II.,  chap.  ix. 


EXTR/1-BIBLlCAL  SAYINGS   OF  JESUS.         79 

unto  you."^  Justin  Martyr  writes:  "Our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  said,  In  whatsoever  I  may  find 
you,  in  this  will  I  also  judge  you."  ^  Didymus 
states  :  "  The  Saviour  himself  says.  He  who  is 
near  me  is  near  the  fire  ;  he  who  is  far  from 
me  is  far  from  the  kingdom."  ^  The  second 
epistle,  which  has  been  wrongly  ascribed  to 
Clement  of  Rome,  and  is  now  known  under 
his  name,  has,  "The  Lord  says  in  the  Gospel, 
If  ye  keep  not  that  which  is  small,  who  will 
give  you  that  which  is  great  }  For  I  say  unto 
you,  that  he  that  is  faithful  in  very  little  is 
faithful  also  in  much."  *  This  is  probably 
an  adaptation  of  Luke  xvi.  10-12,  and  not  an 
independent  saying.  The  same  epistle  adds, 
"  (The  Lord)  says.  Keep  the  flesh  pure,  and 
the  seal  unspotted,  that  we  may  receive  eternal 
life  ; "  '^  and  a  little  later,  "  The  Lord  himself 
having  been  asked  by  some  one,  When  his 
kingdom  will  come  .-•  said.  When  the  two  shall 
be  one,  and  that  which  is  without  as  that  which 
is  within,  and  the  male  with  the  female,  neither 


1  De  Oratis,  §  2.  This  is  given  in  nearly  the  same  words  by 
Clement  of  Alexandria,  Stromaia,  Hk.  I.,  chap.  xxiv. 

-  Dialogue,  chap,  xlvii. 

3  In  his  commentary  on  Psalm  Ixxxviii.  S;  and  Origen  cites  the 
passage  almost  as  clearly  in  his  Homily  on  Jer.  xx.  S,  and  .xxx.  3. 

^11.  Clem.,  chap.  viii. 

6  Ibid. 


80      INTRODUCTION   TO    THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS. 

male  nor  female."  ^  Origen,  in  his  commentary 
on  Matthew,  quite  likely  makes  an  adaptation 
of  Matt.  XXV.  35,  36,  in  the  words,  "Jesus  says, 
For  those  that  are  sick  I  was  sick,  and  for 
those  that  hunger  I  suffered  hunger,  and  for 
those  that  thirst  I  suffered  thirst." 

We  read  in  Jerome,  "  In  the  Hebrew  Gos- 
pel we  find  the  Lord  saying  to  his  disciples, 
Never  be  joyful  except  when  ye  shall  look  on 
your  brother  in  love."^  Ignatius  of  Antioch 
writes  to  the  Smyrnaeans  (§  3),  "  When  the 
Lord  came  to  Peter  and  the  apostles  (after 
his  resurrection),  he  said  to  them,  Take  hold, 
handle  me,  and  see  that  I  am  not  an  incorpo- 
real spirit."  The  C/ementme  Homilies  (XII. 
29),  give  the  converse  of  familiar  Scripture 
words  in  the  following  language,  "  Christ  said, 
Good  must  needs  come,  but  blessed  is  he 
through  whom  it  comes."  Clement  of  Alex- 
andria somewhat  ambiguously  has  written,  "  It 
was  not  through  unwillingness  to  impart  his 
blessings  that  the  Lord  announced  in  some 
Gospel  or  other,  My  mystery  is  for  me  and  for 
the  sons  of  my  house."  ^ 

1  II.  12.  This  occurs  also  in  nearly  the  same  form  in  Clem. 
Alex.,  Stromata,  Bk.  III.,  chap.  xiii. 

2  In  his  comment  on  Eph.  v.  3. 

3  Stromata,  Bk.  V.,  chaps,  x.,  Ixiv.  This  occurs  in  nearly  the 
same  words  in  the  Clementine  Homilies,  XIX.  20. 


EXTRA-BIRLICAL    SAYINGS   OF  JESUS.         81 

The  passage  of  greatest  length  and  most  cu- 
rious is  from  Papias,  as  preserved  by  Irenaius  :' 
"  The  Lord  taught  of  those  days  [Papias  refers 
to  the  time  of  the  millennium],  The  days  will 
come  in  which  vines  shall  spring  up,  each  hav- 
ing ten  thousand  stocks,  and  on  each  stock  ten 
thousand  branches,  and  on  each  branch  ten 
thousand  shoots,  and  on  each  shoot  ten  thou- 
sand bunches,  and  on  each  bunch  ten  thousand 
grapes,  and  each  grape  when  pressed  shall  give 
five  and  twenty  measures  of  wine.  And  when 
any  saint  shall  have  seized  one  bunch,  another 
shall  cry :  I  am  a  better  bunch ;  take  me ; 
through  me  bless  the  Lord.  .  .  .  And  when 
Judas,  the  traitor,  believed  not  and  asked.  How 
shall  such  productions  proceed  from  the  Lord  .-' 
the  Lord  said.  They  shall  see  who  shall  come 
to  these  times." 

There  are  numerous  other  reputed  sayings  of 
our  Lord  preserved  in  the  early  Christian  writ- 
ings,2  which  resemble  Gospel  phrases  so  nearly 

1  Against  Heresies,  Bk.  V.,  chap.  x.xxiii.  This  may  be  found  in 
Charteiis'  Canonicity,  p.  53. 

2  Westcott  gives  a  complete  collection,  Introduction  to  Study  of 
the  Gospels,  .App.  C.  Cf.  Farrar's  Life  of  Christ,  vol.  ii.,  p.  499.  Pro- 
fessor Margoliouth  in  The  Expository  Times,  November  and  Decem- 
ber, 1S93,  and  January,  1894,  under  the  title  "  Ciirist  in  Islam,"  has 
githered  the  sayings  attributed  to  Christ  by  Mohammedan  writers, 
and  not  found  in  our  Gosjjels.  Forty-eight  are  given.  Wherein  they 
are  different   from  the  New  Testament  utterances,  they  have  these 


82      INTRODUCTION    TO    THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS. 

as  to  be  usually  regarded  as  mere  variations 
of  them.  But  few,  if  any,  of  these  sayings 
add  any  actual  information  concerning  Christ's 
teaching  or  power  which  we  do  not  possess  in 
the  Gospels  of  our  canon.  These  enrich  in  no 
measure  our  sources  ;  they  scarcely  give  con- 
firmation. It  may  well  be  deemed  significant 
of  Providential  design  for  accrediting  the  four 
Gospels  of  the  New  Testament,  that  so  little 
purporting  to  issue  from  Jesus  Christ  is  found 
outside  of  them. 

characteristics:  (i)  an  ascetic  tendency,  (2)  a  more  conspicuous  ten- 
derness for  animals,  and  (3)  Christ  appears  more  as  a  casuist  than 
revealer  of  life. 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

THE  CHRISTIAN  SOURCES GOSPELS,  ONCE  CUR- 
RENT, NOW  LOST,  AND  KNOWN  ONLY  THROUGH 
FRAGMENTARY  REMAINS  AND  CITATIONS  IN 
ANCIENT    DOCUMENTS. 

In  this  department  of  our  subject  recent 
discoveries  and  modern  criticism  arc  making 
constant  changes.  On  Dec.  3,  1892,  a  cable 
message  from  England  informed  us  that,  a  few 
days  before,  a  fragment  of  the  Gospd  of  Peter, 
long  known  in  the  church  Fathers  but  never 
seen  by  moilern  eyes,  had  been  published  there, 
and  was  awakening  great  interest.  The  docu- 
ment, with  the  Greek  text  of  the  apocryphal 
Old  Testament  Book  of  Enoch,  and  a  portion 
of  the  Apocalypse  of  Peter,  had  been  found  dur- 
ing the  winter  of  1886-1887^  by  members  of 
the  French  Archaeological  Mission  at  Cairo,  in 
a  Christian  tomb  at  Akhmim  in  Upper  Egypt. 
Origen,  Eusebius,  Jerome,  and  Thcodoret  make 
mention  of  this  document  ;  and  Eusebius  quotes 
a  description  of  it  from  an  epistle  written  by 

1  It  had  been  withheld  from  publication  this  length  of  time  for 

the  purpose  of  deciphering  and  editing  the  te.xt. 
83 


84      INTRODUCTION   TO   THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS. 

Serapion,  bishop  of  Antioch  from  a.d.  190  to 
A.D.  203,  to  the  Christians  of  Rhossus,  who 
were  reading  the  Gospel  and  deriving  from  it 
heretical  doctrines.^  Serapion  speaks  of  it  as 
used  by  the  sect  of  the  Docetae,  and  also  char- 
acterizes it  as  an  amplification  of  the  Biblical 
narrative.  The  fragment  now  in  hand  con- 
forms to  Serapion's  description.  In  recording 
the  passion  of  our  Lord,  it  gives  some  minor 
details  not  elsewhere  stated,  yet  it  cannot  be  re- 
ceived as  trustworthy.  All  external  evidences 
concerning  it,  and  its  own  internal  confessions, 
indicate  that  it  is  the  work  of  the  School  of 
the  Docetae,  probably  at  Antioch,  about  the 
middle  of  the  second  century.^ 

The  Gospel  according  to  the  Hebrezvs  is  known 
only  from  quotations,  found  chiefly  in  Jerome. 
It  has  played  quite  an  important  fole  in  the 
minds  of  some  critics.  Schwegler  and  Baur 
regarded  this  document  as  the  original  of  the 
Gospel   of  Matthew,  from  which  all  the  other 

1  Eusebius,  Church  History,  Bk.  VI.,  chap.  xii. 

2  See  Zahn,  Geschichte  des  neiitcst.  Kanons,  2ter  Bd.,  2ter  Halfte, 
II.  Abt.,  s.  751  ;  Die  Theolagische  Liter aturzeitung,  Dec.  lo,  1892, 
columns  609-614  ;  The  Review  of  the  Churches,  Dec.  15,  1892,  p.  162  ; 
The  Newly  Recovered  Gospel  of  St.  Peter,  by  Professor  J.  Rendel 
Harris ;  Professor  Harnack's  "  Bruchstiicke  des  Evangeliums  und  der 
Apokalypse  des  Petrus,"  in  Texte  und  Untersuchungctv,  Band  ix., 
Heft  2  ;  and  my  own  article  in  The  Homiletic  Review,  April,  1893, 
pp.  310-319. 


GOSPELS,   ONCE  CURRENT,  NOIV  LOST.       85 

Gospels  were  drawn.  If  these  gentlemen  were 
now  living,  it  is  very  improbable  that  they 
would  still  hold  to  that  contention  ;  for  its 
later  origin,  as  compared  with  the  canonical 
Gospels,  is  conceded  by  nearly  all  scholars.  It 
uses  the  term  Lord,  rather  than  Jesus,  which 
was  the  earlier  custom.  It  softens  moral  difTi- 
culties ;  for  example,  in  the  account  of  the  rich 
young  man,  the  Lord  is  represented  as  saying, 
"  Behold,  many  of  the  brethren,  sons  of  Abra- 
ham, are  covered  with  dung  and  dying  for 
hunger,  and  thy  house  is  full  of  many  good 
things,  and  naught  goeth  forth  at  all  from  thee 
to  them."  1  Again,  after  the  words  of  Mat- 
thew (xviii.  22),  "  if  thy  brother  sin  against 
thee,"  this  Gospel  adds,  "  in  word,  and  if  he 
shall  make  amends;"  and  also  corrects  "son  of 
Barachiah  "  of  Matt,  xxiii.  35  into  "son  of  Je- 
hoiada,"  according  to  2  Chron.  xxiv.  20.  It 
also  increases  the  marvellous  element ;  for  ex- 
ample, at  the  baptism  of  Jesus,  "  It  came  to 
pass  when  the  Lord  was  come  up  from  the 
water,  the  whole  fountain  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
came  down  and  rested  upon  him,  and  said  to 
him,  O  my  son,  in  all  the  prophets  I  was  await- 
ing thee,  that  thou  mightest  come  and  that  I 
might  find  rest  in  thee  ;  for  thou  art  my  rest, 

1  Cf.  Luke  xviii.  22. 


86      INTRODUCTION    TO    THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS. 

thou  art  my  first  born  son,  who  reignest  for- 
ever." The  Holy  Spirit  is  called  in  it  the 
Mother  of  the  Lord  ;  and  Jesus  is  represented 
as  saying,  "  But  now,  my  Mother,  the  Holy 
Spirit,  took  me  by  one  of  my  hairs,  and  car- 
ried me  away  to  the  Mount  Tabor."  These 
are  phrases  and  features  met  with  in  the  sec- 
ond, not  in  the  first  century.  It  could  not  be 
deemed,  therefore,  were  it  extant,  a  trustworthy 
document.^ 

The  Gospel  of  the  Ebionitcs  is  but  a  name. 
Epiphanius  mentions  it,  but,  as  he  describes  it, 
it  was  "  called  the  Gospel  according  to  Mat- 
thew, not  entire  and  perfectly  complete,  but 
falsified  and  mutilated,  which  they  call  the  He- 
brew Gospel."  2  This  would  seem  to  indicate 
that  it  was  either  the  canonical  Gospel  of  Mat- 
thew in  a  corrupt  form,  or  nothing  more  than 
the  Gospel  accoi'ding  to  the  Hebreivs  just  men- 
tioned. At  any  rate,  it  does  not  exist  for  our  use, 
and  can  add  nothing  to  our  knowledge  of  Christ. 

1  See  Dr.  E.  A.  Abbott,  Encyc.  Brit.,  "  Gospels,"  vol.  x.,  p.  Si8, 
note  I  ;  Professor  Lipsius,  in  Smith  &  Wace's  Dictionary  of  Chris- 
tian Biography^  "  Gospels  Apocryphal,"  vol.  ii.,  pp.  709-712  ;  West- 
cott's  hitrodt'Cction  to  the  Study  of  the  Gospels,  Appendix  D  ;  Fisher's 
The  Supernattiral  Origin  of  Christianity,  p.  167. 

2  Salmon,  hitroditction  to  the  New  Testament,  p.  176,  says  of 
it  :  "I  look  on  it  as  a  third-century  forgery,  made  with  heretical  in- 
tent by  one  who  was  well  acquainted  with  the  Greek  Gospels,  in  a 
workshop  discredited  by  other  forgeries  and  impostures."  See  Epi- 
phanius, On  Heresies,  §  29.     Westcott,  Introduction,  Appendix  D,  II. 


GOSPELS,   ONCE   CURRENT,   NOIV  LOST.       87 

A  Gospel  of  the  Clevientine  llouiilies  is  some- 
times spoken  of.  The  Cleinentiuc  Homilies  ^  arc 
a  series  of  short  sermons,  once  believed,  ac- 
cording to  their  ascription,  to  have  been  writ- 
ten by  Clement  of  Rome,  who  lived  at  the  close 
of  the  first  century  ;  but  a  critical  examination 
of  their  text  proves  them  to  belong  to  the 
end  of  the  second,  or  beginning  of  the  third 
century ;  and  the  quotations  from  Scripture 
which  they  contain,  though  somewhat  different 
from  the  language -of  our  Gospels,  cannot  es- 
tablish the  fact  of  a  different  Gospel,  but  show, 
quite  likely,  merely  that  the  writer  quoted  care- 
lessly from  memory. 

Another  Gospel  which  has  made  itself  a 
reputation,  is  that  of  Marcion?  This  man, 
who  died  in  a.d.  165,  sought  to  reform  the 
church  by  explaining  the  sharp  contrasts  be- 
tween the  dispensations  of  the  Old  Testament 
and  the  New,  and  the  antitheses  of  Paul's  writ- 
ings, upon  law  and  grace,  as  expressive  of  a 
dualistic  God,  one  good,  the  other  malign.  Of 
the  good  God,  he  regarded  Jesus  Christ  to  be 
a  manifestation.     Accordingly  he  endeavored  to 

1  TheAntc-Niccnc  Fathers,  vol.  viii.,  contains  translation  by  Dr. 
Wm.  Smith,  and  introduction  by  Professor  M.  B.  Riddle.  See 
Westcott,  Introduction,  Appendix  D,  III. 

2  Salmon,  Introduction,  pp.  203-20S ;  Ilarnack,  Encyc.  Brit., 
"  Marcion;"  Westcott,  Introduction,  Appendix  D,  IV. 


88      INTRODUCTION   TO    THE  LIFE   OF  JESUS. 

gain  a  picture  of  this  good  God  and  his  Son, 
by  eliminating  from  the  life  of  Jesus  all  inci- 
dents which  he  deemed  late  additions  unwar- 
rantably attached  to  it.  He  made  a  collection 
of  New  Testament  writings  which  he  pro- 
nounced canonical,  and  is  the  first  to  have 
done  so.  This  collection  consisted  of  one  Gos- 
pel and  ten  Epistles  of  Paul.  At  one  time 
that  one  Gospel  was  thought  to  be  an  original, 
independent  Gospel ;  but  in  the  writings  of 
Tertullian  and  Epiphanius,  who  have  preserved 
the  material  for  reconstructing  it,  it  has  been 
found  more  recently  to  be  but  a  mutilated  edi- 
tion of  Luke.^ 

Celsus,  in  his  famous  True  Discourse,^  speaks 
of  drawing  his  information  from  "  the  writings 
of  the  disciples  of  Jesus."  But  he  adduces 
nothing  which  is  not  found  in  our  Gospels ; 
and  Origen,  in  replying  to  him,  does  not 
charge  him  with  relying  upon  false  documents, 
but  of  blundering  in  using  facts  drawn  from 
these  sources  ;  for  he  says,^  concerning  his 
arguments  against  Celsus,  "  We  showed  that 
there    has    been    a    great    deal    of    nonsensical 

1  Lipsius,  Dictionary  of  Christian  Biography ,  "  Gospels  Apoc- 
ryphal," vol.  ii.,  p.  714,  gives  an  epitome,  as  well  as  an  estimate,  of 
this  Gospel. 

2  See  above,  p.  35. 

3  Against  Celsus,  Bk.  II.,  chap.  Ixxiv. 


GOSPELS,   ONCE  CURRENT,  NOlV  LOST.       89 

blundering,  contrary  to  the  writings  of  our 
Gospels." 

No  Gospel,  therefore,  of  value,  additional  to 
the  four  we  now  possess,  so  far  as  can  now  be 
seen,  has  ever  been  lost  to  the  world  by  which 
the  world  is  a  loser  in  the  knowledge  of  Jesus. 
Others  are  mere  names.  The  Gospel  according 
to  the  Egyptians,  the  Gospels  of  Basilidcs,  of 
Cerinthns,  of  Apelles}  and  of  Matthias.  It  is 
altogether  possible  that  we  shall  yet  know  these 
documents  better,  perhaps  by  discovery  of  man- 
uscripts in  libraries,  monasteries,  or  tombs  un- 
explored ;  or  perhaps  by  the  closer  study  and 
sounder  conclusions  of  modern  critics  upon 
sources  already  known.^ 

In  this  connection,  though  not  a  distinct 
Gospel  in  the  same  category  with  those  just 
mentioned,  yet  presenting  distinctive  features, 
I  should  speak  of  the  recently  discovered  Syriac 
translation  of  the  New  Testament,  discovered 
in  February,  1892,  and  transcribed  in  February, 
1893,  by  Mrs.  Lewis  and  Mrs.  Gibson,  two  sis- 
ters, who  at  the  suggestion  of  Professor  J.  Ren- 

1  Lipsius  regards  this  as  "  probably  identical  with  Marcion's  Gos- 
pel." Apelles  was  a  disciple  of  Marcion.  See  Smith  and  Wace's 
Dictionary  of  Christian  Biography,  "Gospels  Apocryphal,"  vol.  ii., 
p.  715- 

2  The  Diatessaron  of  Tatian,  composed  about  A.n.  160,  was  long 
thought  to  be  a  distinct  Gospel.     But  see  p.  129. 


90      INTRODUCTION    TO    THE  LIFE   OF  JESUS. 

del  Harris  visited  Egypt  and  Arabia  for  careful 
investigation  of  ancient  manuscripts.  The  story 
of  this  manuscript  and  of  its  historical  and  criti- 
cal value  has  been  told  by  the  discoverers  and 
their  collaborators.^ 

It  is  recognized  as  the  oldest  Syriac  version 
of  the  Gospels  extant,  —  older  than  the  Cure- 
tonian,  and  older  than  the  Peshitto.  Syriac,  it 
will  be  remembered,  was  the  dialect  of  Pales- 
tine in  the  time  of  Jesus,  corrupted  from  the 
older  Hebrew ;  it  was  the  language  of  the 
people,  amongst  whom  Greek  had  not  gained 
complete  currency.  Into  this  home-speech,  nat- 
urally, the  Gospels  would  soon  be  translated. 
This  version,  it  is  claimed,  was  made  not  later 
than  A.D.  I  50.2 

A  number  of  variations  from  our  Gospels 
exists  in  this  text ;  but  most  of  them  do  not 
affect  materially  the  character  of  the  Christ 
delineated  or    the   substance    of    his    teaching. 

1  The  Four  Gospels  in  Syriac.  Transcribed  from  the  Sinaitic 
Palimpsest  by  the  late  Robt.  L.  Bensley,  M.A.,  Lord  Almoner's 
Professor  of  Arabic  in  the  University  of  Cambridge;  and  by  J.  Ren- 
del  Harris,  M.A.,  Hon.  Litt.  D.,  Dublin,  Lecturer  in  Paleography  in 
the  University  of  Cambridge  and  by  T.  Crawford  Burkitt,  M.A., 
with  an  Introduction  by  Agnes  Smith  Lewis  ;  A  Translation  of 
the  Four  Gospels  from  the  Syriac  of  the  Sinaitic  Palimpsest,  by 
Mrs.  Agnes  Smith  Lewis;  and  How  the  Codex  was  Found;  a 
Narrative  of  Two  Visits  to  Sifiai,  by  Mrs.  Margaret  Dunlop  Gibson. 

2  Dean  Farrar,  The  Expositor,  5th  series,  vol.  i.  (January,  1895), 
p.  S,  "  The  Sinaitic  Palimpsest  of  the  Syriac  Gospels." 


GOSPELS,  ONCn   CURRHNT,   NOIV  LOST.       01 

One  passage,  however,  demands  our  attention ; 
viz..  Matt.  i.  16-25.  Matt.  i.  16  reads,  "Jacob 
begat  Joseph  ;  JoscpJi,  to  zu/iojn  was  bctrotJicd 
Majy  the  Virgin,  begat  Jesus,  who  is  called 
Christ;"  Matt.  i.  21  reads,  "For  she  shall  bear 
thee  a  son;"  and  Matt.  i.  25  reads,  "And  he 
married  his  wife,  and  she  bare  him  a  son,  and 
he  called  his  name  Jesus." 

The  readings  in  Italics  are  startling.  And 
yet,  right  beside  them,  it  must  be  noticed  Mary 
is  still  called  ''the  Virgin;"  Matt.  i.  18  still 
reads,  "  When  his  mother  Mary  had  been  be- 
trothed to  Joseph,  before  they  eavie  together  she 
zvas  found  with  child  of  the  Holy  Ghost ;  "  verse 
20  still  contains  these  words,  "  for  that  which  is 
conceived  in  her  is  of  the  Holy  Ghost;  and  the 
rest  of  the  passage  remains  unchanged  except- 
ing in  verse  25,  the  words  " kneiv  her  7iot  till" 
are  omitted. 

Obviously  the  passage  is  inconsistent  with 
itself.  Obviously,  therefore,  some  bungling 
hand  has  tampered  with  the  te.xt.  Now,  in 
which  direction  is  it  more  likely  that  the  cor- 
ruption has  proceeded  ?  This  question  is  not 
for  science  or  philosophy  to  answer.  It  is  a 
question  of  evidence.  Textual  criticism  must 
be  called  to  the  stand.  One  manuscript  alone, 
a  cursive  of  the  fourth  or  fifth  century,  known 


92      INTRODUCTION   TO    THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS. 

as  k,  so  far  conforms  to  this  Syriac  rendering 
as  to  omit  ''and  kneiv  Jicr  not  till;''  but  all 
other  authority  of  the  manuscripts  is  against 
these  new  readings.  If  it  be  claimed,  never- 
theless, that  this  version  is  older  than  any  of 
the  Greek  texts  extant,  then  it  may  be  replied 
(i)  that  the  Itala  version  is  as  old  as  this,  and 
the  Itala  presents  the  standard  reading  to 
which  we  have  been  accustomed  ;  and  (2)  age 
alone  does  not  guarantee  correctness  ;  values 
must  be  tested  by  a  wide  comparison  of  texts, 
and  in  this  direction  textual  criticism  has  a  ser- 
vice still  to  render.^ 

In  1894  a  Russian  gentleman,  M.  Nicolas 
Notovitch,  published  in  Paris  The  Unknown 
Life  of  CJirist^  the  manuscript  of  which,  he 
alleged,  had  been  read  to  him  by  the  Chief 
Lama  of  the  Himis  Monastery  in  the  heart  of 
Tibet,  at  a  time  when,  disabled  by  a  broken 
limb,  he  had  been  hospitably  received  and 
nursed  in  the  monastery.  This  Life  states 
that  Jesus  spent  the  years  of  his  youth  from 
fifteen  to  twenty-nine  in  India,  where  he  studied 

1  On  the  subject  of  the  doctrine  of  the  immaculate  conception  as 
affected  by  this  manuscript,  see  Dean  Farrar's  article,  already  cited. 
The  Expositor,  January,  1895,  pp.  12-19;  and  Professor  Wm.  Ince, 
The  Exposifor,  ]une,  1S95,  pp.  401-411,  "The  Miraculous  Concep- 
tion and  Virgin  Birth  of  Jesus." 

2  La  Vie  Inconmte  de  Jesus-Christ.  It  has  appeared  in  eleven 
editions,  and  has  been  translated  into  English. 


GOSPELS,    ONCE   CURRENT,   NOM^'  LOST.      93 

Sanscrit  and  Pali,  read  the  Vedas  and  the 
Buddhist  canon,  and  imbibed  the  principles 
which  he  subsequently  preached  in  Palestine 
as  his  Gospel.  Likenesses  between  Christianity 
and  Buddhism  have  often  been  noticed. 

This  L(fc,  according  to  M.  Notovitch,  was 
taken  down  by  Jewish  merchants  who  came 
to  India  immediately  after  the  crucifi.xion,  in 
about  A.D.  35.  It  was  written  in  Pali,  the 
sacred  language  of  Southern  Buddhism.  The 
scrolls  were  brought  from  India  to  Nepaul  and 
Makhada  in  about  a.d.  200,  and  from  Nepaul 
to  Tibet,  and  are  now  preser\-ed  at  Lassa. 
Tibetan  translations  exist  in  several  places, 
and  it  is  one  of  these  which  is  in  the  Himis 
Monastery. 

This  Li/e  is  entirely  devoid  of  the  miraculous 
element,  and  repudiates  the  resurrection.  If  it 
is  true,  it  must  materially  modify  the  usually 
received  conceptions  of  Jesus  Christ.  Is  it 
true  ? 

Professor  Max  Miiller,  in  an  article  entitled 
"  The  Alleged  Sojourn  of  Christ  in  India," 
appearing  in  T/w  Ninctccutit  Century  iox  Octo- 
ber, 1894,  pronounces  the  account  s|nirious, 
and  charitably  —  to  M.  Notovitch  —  suggests 
that  the  Russian  traveller  has  been  imposed 
upon  by  crafty  priests  of  Tibet.     But  an  article 


94      INTRODUCTION   TO    THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS. 

in  The  Nineteenth  Centnry  for  April,  1896,  by 
Professor  J.  Archibald  Douglas  of  the  Govern- 
ment College  in  Agra,  under  the  title  "  The 
Chief  Lama  of  Himis  on  the  Alleged  Unknown 
Life  of  Christ,''  reports  an  interview  with  the 
head  of  the  Himis  Monastery,  which  exposes 
so  completely  the  literary  deception  attempted 
by  M.  Notovitch  that  Professor  Max  Miiller 
appends  a  note  to  Professor  Douglas's  article, 
withdrawing  every  particle  of  the  cloak  of  char- 
ity with  which  at  first  he  had  undertaken  to 
shield  the  Russian. 

The  Chief  Lama  of  Himis  could  not  have 
conversed  with  M.  Notovitch  upon  "  the  reli- 
gions of  the  Egyptians  and  Assyrians  and  the 
people  of  Israel,"  as  alleged,  for  he  is  not  ac- 
quainted with  these  religions.  He  did  not  read 
to  M.  Notovitch  a  Buddhist  account  of  Issa,  for 
he  knows  of  no  such  account  ;  there  is  no  such 
manuscript,  as  alleged,  in  the  monastery,  and 
he  has  never  heard  of  such  an  one  elsewhere. 
At  no  time  has  a  European  traveller  with  a 
broken  limb  been  harbored  within  the  walls  of 
the  monastery,  and  all  the  inmates  of  the  mon- 
astery are  ignorant  of  such  an  occurrence. 
The  Sind  Valley,  in  which  M.  Notovitch  affirms 
he  was  beset  with  "  panthers,  tigers,  leopards, 
black  bears,  wolves  and  jackals,"  has  no  such 


GOSPELS,   ONCn   CURRENT  NOIV   LOST.      1)5 

beasts  within  it.  Beasts,  broken  legs,  and 
Buddhist  manuscripts  arc  declared  to  be  the 
pure  fiction  of  M.  Notovitch's  imagination  ;  and 
both  Professor  Douglas  and  Professor  Max 
Muller  agree  in  terming  the  account  a  menda- 
cious fraud,  and  the  perpetrator  a  wilful  liar. 
Plain  epithets  are  justifiable  when  history, 
either  sacred  or  profane,  is  thus  invented. 

Of  Gospels,  therefore,  while  we  hear  of  many 
names,  and  see  some  with  false  and  specious 
claims  foisted  upon  public  attention,  we  have 
yet  to  discover  one  which  adds  a  credible  item 
to  the  accounts  given  in  the  four  Gospels  of  the 
New  Testament. 


CHAPTER    IX. 

THE    CHRISTIAN    SOURCES. THE    CHURCH 

FATHERS. 

The  Fathers  of  the  church  are  now  usually 
distinguished  under  four  titles :  the  apostolic, 
the  apologetic,  the  ante-Nicene,  and  the  post- 
Nicene.  Sometimes  they  are  designated  by 
the  language  which  they  employed,  as  Greek 
Fathers  and  Latin  Fathers.  The  apostolic 
Fathers  are  those  who  during  a  part  of  their 
lives  were,  or  until  recently  were  supposed  to 
be  contemporary  with  the  apostles.  The  apol- 
ogetic Fathers  are  those  who,  beginning  about 
the  middle  of  the  second  century,  wrote  in  de- 
fence of  Christianity  against  the  objections  of 
doubting  Jews  and  pagans.  The  ante-Nicene 
Fathers  are  those  who  wrote  before  the  Council 
of  Nice,  in  a.d.  325,  and  include  both  the  apos- 
tolic and  apologetic,  with  others  of  the  time. 
The  post-Nicene  Fathers  are  those  who  lived 
and  wrote  after  the  Council  of  Nice.  In  a  later 
chapter,  many  of  these  earlier  Fathers  will  be 
summoned  as  witnesses  to  the  existence  and 
origin  of  the  New  Testament  books ;  but  in 
96 


THE   CHURCH   F/iTHERS.  97 

this  chapter  we  must  examine  them  to  ascertain 
what  they  themselves  tell  of  Jesus,  and  if  they 
tell  anything  that  is  not  found  in  the  New  Tes- 
tament or  in  other  sources. 

The  apostolic  Fathers  '  are  Clement  of  Rome, 
Ignatius  of  Antioch,  Polycarp  of  Smyrna,  Papias 
of  Hierapolis,  and  the  writers,  now  unknown,  of 
the  documents  bearing  the  names,  T/ie  lipisile 
to  Diognetus,  The  Teaching  of  the  'Twelve  Apos- 
tles, The  Epistle  of  Barnabas,  and  The  Shepherd 
of  Hennas. 

The  Epistle  of  Clement  was  called  forth  by  a 
request  from  the  Christians  at  Corinth  for  ad- 
vice in  the  case  of  division  in  the  church  over 
an  unruly  member.  Clement  replies  in  behalf 
of  the  church  at  Rome,  counselling  forbearance, 
and  citing  instances  of  patience  and  sacrifice 
from  the  Old  Testament  and  more  modern 
times.  Of  Jesus  nothing,  elsewhere  unrecorded, 
is  mentioned.  It  is,  however,  a  sweet-spirited 
epistle,  and  useful  for  devotional  reading  to- 
day, despite  an  absurdity  or  two,  such  as  the 
introduction  of  the  mythological  phoenix  story 
as  a  proof  of  the  resurrection  (chap.  x.w.).  It 
used  to  be  read  at  one  time  in  the  church  as 

1  The  literature  of  the  apostolic  Fathers  is  extensive.  See  espe- 
cially Pairuin  Apostolicorum  Opera,  edited  by  Gebhardt,  Harnack, 
and  Zahn ;  the  late  Bishop  I.iglitfoot's  Apostolic  Fathers;  and  the 
late  Dr.  ^^chaff's  Teaching  of  the  Twelve  Apostles. 


98      INTRODUCTION    TO    THE  LIFE   OF  JESUS. 

a  part  of  worship,  and  was  then  held  in  such 
high  esteem  as  to  be  appended  to  the  books  of 
the  New  Testament  canon,  as  is  the  case  with 
the  Alexandrine  Codex,  written  in  the  fifth  cen- 
tury. 

The  author  of  The  Epistle  to  Diognetus  terms 
himself  a  "disciple  of  the  apostles,"  but  more 
clearly  indicates  the  early  time  of  writing  by 
frequent  references  to  Christianity  as  nczv.  He 
gives  a  brief  account  of  the  beginning  of  Chris- 
tianity, the  present  manners  of  Christians,  their 
relation  to  the  world,  and  of  the  significance 
of  Christ's  coming ;  but  he  adds  no  new  facts 
concerning  Christ  himself. 

TJie  Teaching  of  the  Twelve  Apostles  purports 
to  be  the  substance  of  the  teaching  of  the 
apostles  on  receiving  converts  and  organizing 
churches.  It  contains  instruction  in  regard  to 
the  two  ways,  of  life  and  of  death,  baptism, 
fasting,  praying,  communion,  Sunday,  sacrifices, 
the  officers  of  the  church,  and  watchfulness 
in  preparation  for  Christ's  return.  It  quotes 
largely  from  the  New  Testament  language,  but 
supplements  in  no  measure  the  narrative  of 
Jesus'  life,  save,  as  do  all  the  writings  of  this 
period,  by  showing  the  extraordinary  influence 
of  that  life. 

These  three  documents   were   written,   it   is 


THF:    CHURCH  hATHF.RS.  99 

generally  acknowledged  by  critics,  nut  far  from 
the  year  a.d.  ioo,  and  prolxibly  on  the  earlier, 
rather  than  on  the  later  side  of  that  date.  Sev- 
eral epistles  of  Ignatius  and  one  of  Polycarj) 
are  extant  which  were  penned  about  a.d.  mo. 
These  men  were  bishops,  the  one  of  Antioch, 
the  other  of  Smyrna,  and  wrote  to  churches 
with  advice  for  church  life  and  church  work. 
Their  epistles  are  invaluable  for  showing  the 
spread  of  Christianity,  the  environment  of  the 
early  church,  and  much  that  pertains  to  her 
history ;  but  they  indei)endently  add  nothing 
to  our  knowledge  of  the  details  of  the  life  of 
Jesus. 

The  Epistle  of  Baniabas,  a  little  later  still, 
reasons  out  extensively  the  inadequacy  of  the 
old  dispen.sation  and  its  complete  abrogation  by 
the  new,  and  concludes  with  a  section  upon  the 
two  ways,  of  life  and  of  death,  very  much  like 
that  with  which  The  Teaching  of  the  Tzvclve 
Apostles  opens.  But  it  presents  no  new  bio- 
graphical data  of  Jesus. 

So  also  Papias  and  Hermas  add  nothing  to 
the  exactness  of  the  picture  of  the  earthly 
career  of  Christ.  The  former  is  known  only 
in  a  few  quotations  preserved  in  later  church 
Fathers.  The  latter  writes  in  the  form  of  an 
allegory,  which,   though   sometimes   called    The 


100      INTRODUCTION    TO    THE  LIFE   OF  JESUS. 

Pilgrim  s  Pjvgrcss  of  the  Second  Century,  is 
very  much  inferior  to  the  immortal  work  of  the 
tinker  of  Bedford  jail.  TJie  Shepherd  of  Her- 
fuas  consists  of  "  Visions,"  "  Mandates,"  and 
"  Similitudes."  The  scene  of  the  visions  is 
near  Rome.  In  the  first  the  church  apj^ears  as 
an  aged  woman,  aged  because  so  long  in  the 
eternal  purposes  of  God ;  she  is  sick  and  at 
the  point  of  death,  because  at  length  the  old  dis- 
pensation is  to  pass  away ;  yet  beneath  her  is 
an  easy  chair,  which  from  the  expression  "  The 
scribes  sat  in  Moses'  seat,"  is  used  to  typify 
the  Old  Testament.  Then  she  vanishes  away. 
In  the  next  vision  the  woman  appears  younger, 
and,  standing,  is  engaged  in  reading  a  little 
book,  which  indicates  the  New  Testament  rev- 
elation, not  yet  complete ;  as  she  reads,  she 
orders  six  young  men  to  build  her  a  tower,  to 
typify  her  spiritual  creation.  In  the  third  and 
last  vision,  the  woman,  now  quite  young,  and, 
by  reason  of  the  good  tidings  received,  joyous, 
is  carried  off  to  the  tower,  and  is  seen  there 
sitting  on  a  bench,  —  a  bench  having  four  legs, 
which  becomes  the  permanent  possession  of 
the  church.  Then  a  shepherd  appears,  and  pro- 
nounces the  "  Mandates  "  and  "  Similitudes  " 
as  practical  instruction  to  Christians.  The 
value  once  ascribed  to   this  Shepherd  may  be 


THE   CHURCH   FATHERS.  101 

seen  from  the  fact  that  it  is  appended  to  the 
Sinaitic  manuscript  of  the  New  Testament  of 
the  fourth  century,  one  of  the  four  great  manu- 
scripts preserved  to  us. 

All  of  these  writings  are  of  the  utmost  im- 
portance as  evidence  of  the  actuality  of  the  life 
of  Jesus  and  of  the  early  existence  of  the 
record  of  that  life,  although  they  themselves 
relate  none  of  the  incidents  of  the  life.  In 
a  perfectly  naYve  way  they  assume  an  acquain- 
tance on  the  part  of  their  readers  with  the 
words  and  deeds  of  Jesus. 

The  apologists,  on  the  defensive,  were  obliged 
to  state  and  explain  facts  and  array  arguments 
as  their  predecessors  had  not  been  obliged  to 
do.  One  peculiarity  about  their  writings  is  the 
abundance  of  quotations  from  the  New  Testa- 
ment. It  has  been  averred  that,  if  the  New 
Testament  were  to-day  by  some  strange  catas- 
trophe eliminated  from  the  earth,  its  essential 
contents,  and  indeed  nearly  its  entire  phrase- 
ology, could  be  reproduced  from  the  quotations 
of  the  apologists.  To  such  a  degree  have 
early  scepticism  and  theological  strife  unde- 
signedly aided  in  the  preservation  and  authen- 
tication of  the  documents  which  they  generally 
sought  to  overthrow  and  destroy. 

Justin    Martyr,  the    first  of   the    apologists, 


102     INTRODUCTION    TO    THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS. 

active  with  his  pen  the  decade  preceding  a.d. 
150,^  while  giving  many  facts  of  the  Gospels, 
adds  to  them  merely  these :  that  Jesus  was 
born  in  a  cave ;  ^  that  the  Wise  Men  came 
from  Arabia ;  ^  that  the  Lord's  miracles  were 
ascribed  to  magic  by  some  of  the  people  who 
beheld  them  ;  ^  and  that  a  fire  was  kindled 
in  the  Jordan  as  soon  as  Jesus  stepped  into  it 
to  be  baptized.^ 

Celsus,  as  reported  by  Origen,  makes  Jesus 
"  little  "  and  "  ill-favored  "  and  "  ignoble,"  ^  and 
represents  the  mother  of  Jesus  as  working  with 
her  own  hands  at  spinning^ 

The  Clctnentine  Ho7nilics  make  John  the  Bap- 
tist to  have  had  thirty  disciples,  like  the  days 
of  the  moon,  and  Jesus  to  have  had  twelve 
apostles,  like  the  months  of  the  sun,^  and  the 
ministry  of  Jesus  to  have  begun  at  the  time  of 
the  vernal  equinox.^ 

Clement  of  Alexandria  represents  Jesus  as 
commanding  his  disciples  to  remain  twelve 
years  at  Jerusalem.^'^ 

1  In  his  First  Apology.,  chap,  xlvi.,  he  says,  "  Christ  was  born  one 
hundred  and  fifty  years  ago." 

2  Dialogue  unth  Trypho,  chap.  Ixxviii. 

3  Ibid.,  chap.  Ixxvii.,  and  often. 

^  Ibid.,  chap.  Ixix. ;  First  Apology,  chap.  xxx. 

5  Ibid.,  chap.  Ixxxviii.         <>  Against  Celsus,  Bk.  VI.,  chap.  Ixxv. 

7  Ibid.,  Bk.  I.,  chap,  xxviii.  ^  Horn.  II.,  chap,  xxiii. 

9  Horn.  I.,  chap.  vi.  W  Stromata,  Bk.  VI.,  chap.  v. 


THE   CHURCH  FATHF.RS.  103 

According  to  Irenaeus,  the  heretical  sect  of 
Valentinians  maintained  that  Jesus  was  with 
his  disciples  eighteen  months  after  his  resur- 
rection.^ 

These  are  the  chief  contributions  as  to  al- 
leged facts  which  come  to  us  from  the  early 
Christian  Fathers,  distinct  from  the  New  Tes- 
tament record.  By  these  no  serious  modifica- 
tion of  the  New  Testament  delineation  of  the 
Christ  would  be  wrought,  either  in  detail  of 
word  and  act,  or  in  the  characterization  of  his 
nature  and  mission.  The  Fathers  are  confirma- 
tory witnesses.  They  do  not  invent.  Their 
abstention  from  fiction  and  from  assertion  on 
their  own  authority  is  remarkable.  Already 
they  revere  the  Life,  and  they  regard  the 
apostles  who  were  near  that  Life  as  far  supe- 
rior to  themselves.  They  refer  to,  cite,  and 
reproduce  the  Gospel  narratives  ;  and  their 
chief  evidential  value,  it  will  soon  be  seen,  lies 
in  their  early  testimony  to  the  books  of  our 
New  Testament  canon. 

1  At^ainst  Heresies,  Bk.  I.,  chap.  Hi.,  §  2. 


CHAPTER    X. 

THE    CHRISTIAN    SOURCES THE    EPISTLES    OF 

PAUL. 

After  we  have  examined  all  other  sources, 
while  we  find  corroboration  and  ample  certitude 
to  the  fact  of  Christ's  life  on  earth,  yet  are 
we  dependent  upon  the  narratives  of  the  New 
Testament  for  the  details  in  word  and  work  of 
that  life  which  was  such  a  potent  factor  in  the 
world's  history. 

The  writings  of  Paul  of  Tarsus  occupy  an 
important  place,  not  only  in  the  canon  of  Scrip- 
ture, but  also  in  the  history  of  the  criticism 
which  has  been  brought  to  bear  upon  the  New 
Testament.  Four  of  his  epistles  have  stood 
forth  even  more  conspicuously  than  the  others, 
—  that  to  the  Romans,  the  two  to  the  Corinth- 
ians, and  the  one  to  the  Galatians.  Until  within 
a  few  years  it  might  have  been  said  that  the  gen- 
uineness of  these  four  chief  epistles  had  never 
been  doubted.  But  of  late,  on  purely  arbitrary, 
subjective,  and  dogmatic  grounds,  a  school  of 
Dutch  critics  has  assailed  their  integrity,  and, 
104 


THE  EPISTLES   OF  PAUL.  105 

by  so  doing,  attempted  to  weaken  their  claims 
to  genuineness.^  The  want  of  success  on  the 
part  of  this  new  group  of  antagonists  is  becom- 
ing more  and  more  apparent ;  indeed,  the  attack 
has  nowhere  occasioned  alarm,  and  has  secured 
attention  only  from  those  whose  special  busi- 
ness it  is  to  investigate  all  assertions  in  regard 
to  the  Scriptures,  and  allow  every  phase  of 
thought  to  be  heard. 

That  company  of  critics,  active  fifty  and  sixty 
years  ago,  known  as  the  Tubingen  School,  ac- 
cepted I'aul's  four  great  epistles  as  genuine  and 
trustworthy,  though  disparaging,  if  not  alto- 
gether rejecting,  all  other  books  of  the  New 
Testament. 

These  epistles  claim  our  attention  not  alone 
because  of  their  general  acceptance  as  historic, 
but  also  because  of  the  time  of  liicir  composi- 
tion. Chronologically  the  epistles  of  Paul  are 
the  first  and  oldest  documents  within  the  New 
Testament  canon,  penned  at  a  time  when,  as 
yet,  our  Gospels  were  unwritten.  Introduc- 
tions to  the  New  Testament  frequently  begin 
with  these  epistles. 


1  See  my  articles,  "Criticism  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Oalatians," 
Old  and  Nciv  Testament  Student,  I\-bruary,  1S91,  pp.  ()o-ff<\  and 
"Some  Recent  Criticisms  of  the  PauUne  Epistles,"  in  tiie  same, 
July-August,  1S92,  pp.  39-44- 


106      INTRODUCTION    TO    THE   LIFE   OF  JESUS. 

It  is  important,  therefore,  as  well  as  interest- 
ing, to  see  what  facts  concerning  the  Christ, 
Paul  mentions  in  his  epistles.  Paul  is  a  char- 
acter "  whose  personality  stands  forth  with 
absolute  clearness  in  the  light  of  history."^ 
No  one  has  had  the  hardihood  to  deny  his  his- 
torical existence.  He  was  a  man  of  command- 
ing intellect ;  converted  from  a  publicly  avowed 
hostility  to  Christianity  and  all  Christians,  he 
became  a  most  ardent  advocate  and  propagator 
of  the  religion,  and  a  zealous  ally  and  coura- 
geous leader  amongst  the  believers,  ready  at 
any  moment  to  sacrifice  his  life,  if  need  be,  for 
them  and  their  cause ;  and  this  man,  thus  con- 
verted, gives  his  testimony  within  twenty-five 
years  after  Christ's  ministry. 

Paul's  testimony,  too,  because  undesigned,  is 
all  the  more  convincing.  He  set  himself  to  no 
biographer's  task.  Not  memoirs  nor  treatises, 
but  epistles,  called  forth  by  the  seemingly 
unimportant  exigencies  of  his  preaching  and 
travels,  became  his  literary  remains.  And  yet 
these  epistles  teem  with  allusions  and  state- 
ments sufficient  to  delineate  clearly  the  chief 
features  in  the  earthly  career  of  Jesus. 

The  four  chief  letters  were  penned  between 

1  Dean  Farrar,  Encyc.  Brit.,  art.  "  Jesus  Christ,"  vol.  xiii.,  p.  659. 


THll  r.PlSTUlS   Oh   PAUL.  107 

A.D.  55  and  A.n.  59.1     In  them  Taiil  brings  out 
plainly  the  following  facts  :  ^  — 

1.  That  Jesus,  according  to  the  flesh,  was  of 
the  seed  of  David  (Rom.  i.  3). 

2.  That  Jesus  was  the  Son  of  God  (Rom. 
viii.  3,  32  ;  ix.  5  ;  Gal.  iv.  4). 

3.  The  crucifixion  of  Jesus  (1  Cor.  ii.  2,  cf. 
Rom.  iv.  25  ;  v.  6-10  ;  vi.  6  ;  Gal.  ii.  20  ;  iii.  i  3  ; 
vi.  12,  14). 

4.  The  Lord's  Supper  (i  Cor.  xi.  20-26). 

5.  The  resurrection  (i  Cor.  xv. ;  Rom.  i.  4; 
iv.  24;  vi.  4,  9 ;  vii.  4  ;  viii.  11,  34  ;  .\.  9 ;  xiv.  9 ; 
2  Cor.  iv.  14;  V.  14,  15;  Gal.  i.  i ). 

Other  facts  Paul  plainly  implies ;  for  exam- 
ple, "the  gentleness  and  meekness  of  Jesus" 
(2  Cor.  X.  i)  ;  the  preaching  of  Jesus,  from  fre- 
quent allusions  to  Christ's  gospel  (Gal.  i.  8  ; 
Rom.  XV.  8)  and  to  the  kingdom  of  God  as  the 
burden  of  Christ's  preaching  (2  Cor.  vi.  9;  Gal. 
V.  21);  and  that  Jesus  sent  out  apostles  (his 
apostles  being  referred  to,  e.g.,  Gal.  ii.  8). 


1  Conybearc  and  Howson,  The  Life  and  Epistles  of  St.  Paul, 
Appendi.K  II.,  date  i  and  2  Cor.  and  Gal.  in  A.n.  57,  and  Kom.  in 
A.D.  58;  Iloltzmann,  Einkitung  in  das  Neue  Testament,  dates  (jal. 
in  A.I).  55  or  56,  and  i  and  2  Cor.  and  Kom.  in  the  winter  of  A.u. 
58  and  spring  of  A.u.  59. 

2  See  Dean  Farrar's  article,  "  Jesus  Christ,"  Encyc.  Brit.,  vol.  xiii., 
p.  659,  note  6 ;  Westcott's  Gospd  of  the  Resurrection,  §  46  sq.,  p. 
108  sq. 


108     INTRODUCTION    TO    THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS. 

But  the  resurrection  receives  chief  attention. 
That  which  is  the  most  miraculous,  most  dis- 
puted, is  the  best  attested  by  Paul.  One  entire 
chapter  is  devoted  to  this  subject  (i  Cor.  xv.)  ; 
and  elsewhere,  in  a  variety  of  forms,  the  fact  of 
the  resurrection  is  most  clearly  and  explicitly 
stated. 

The  remaining  epistles  of  Paul  confirm  many 
of  the  statements  of  fact  made  in  the  Gospels. 
The  same  may  also  be  said  of  the  epistles  of 
Peter,  James,  and  John.  They  are  corroborative 
witnesses.  It  is  remarkable  that,  though  mak- 
ing no  attempt  to  write  a  life  of  Christ,  and 
penning  letters  called  forth  by  seemingly  trivial 
circumstances,  Paul  and  the  other  apostles 
should  have  revealed,  both  by  direct  statement 
and  by  allusion  and  implication,  so  much  of  the 
historic  character  of  Jesus. 


CHAPTER    XI. 

THE    CHRISTIAN    SOURCES THE    GOSPELS; 

THEIR    GENERAL    CHARACTER. 

All  sources,  hitherto  mentioned,  though  trib- 
utary, are  yet  far  inferior  in  definiteness  and 
completeness  to  the  four  Gospels  of  the  New 
Testament,  which  bear  the  names  of  Matthew, 
Mark,  Luke,  and  John.  Yet  it  must  be  ac- 
knowledged at  the  outset  that  these  writings 
are  but  memoirs.^  They  are  not  complete  bi- 
ographies. They  do  not  profess  to  describe  the 
entire  life  of  Jesus,  but  merely  to  present  sali- 
ent features  here  and  there.  This  is  their  own 
confession. 

I.  Observe  the  scantiness  of  the  record. 
The  entire  New  Testament  does  not  equal  in 
length  and  comprehensiveness  one  volume  of 
any  of  the  well-known  biographies  of  famous 
men,  like  Boswell's  Life  of  JoJinson,  Irving's 
Life  of  Washington,  or  Carlyle's  Life  of  Freder- 
ick the  Great.  Then,  of  the  twenty-seven  books 
within  its  covers,  only  four  are  directly  descrip- 

1  See  Westcott's  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  the  Gosfels,  p. 
109 


110      INTRODUCTION    TO    THE  LIFE   OF  JESUS. 

tive  of  Jesus,  in  bulk  a  little  less  than  one-half 
of  the  entire  New  Testament  (about  five-elev- 
enths). Then,  too,  the  Gospels  duplicate  each 
other  in  large  part.  If  all  that  is  repeated  in 
parallel  passages  be  eliminated,  the  narrative  of 
original  parts  is  reduced  to  very  small  propor- 
tions. 

From  the  nature  of  the  case  \vc  know  that 
not  all  of  Christ's  sayings  could  be  reported. 
No  book  printed,  no  series  of  volumes  ever 
published,  no  manuscripts  ever  penned,  could 
contain  all  that  any  one  person,  however  taci- 
turn, in  the  course  of  three  years'  contact  with 
the  people  of  city  and  country,  would  have 
uttered  in  conversation  and  public  address,  in 
inquiries  and  answers,  in  exhortations  and  so- 
liloquies, in  prayer  and  praise.  But  Jesus  was 
not  taciturn  and  uncommunicative.  It  was  his 
very  mission  to  teach,  to  preach,  to  proclaim 
the  kingdom  of  God  as  at  hand.  All  the  wit- 
nesses hitherto  summoned,  heathen,  Jewish, 
and  Christian,  obviously  testify  that  his  teach- 
ings on  earth  were  of  extraordinary  influence 
among  men,  and  must,  therefore,  have  assumed 
considerable  proportions  in  form  and  phrase; 
and  yet  the  most  extensive  account  is  but  frag- 
mentary, and  must  therefore  be  regarded  as 
suggestive  rather  than  exhaustive. 


THE  GOSPELS;   THEIR  GENER^IL  CHARACTER.     Ill 

2.  Of  the  works  of  Jesus,  but  a  few  are 
described  in  the  narrative.  This  is  not  an  as- 
sumption, but  is  declared  in  the  narrative  itself. 
Of  the  "mighty  works"  done  in  Chorazin  and 
Bethsaida  (Matt.  xi.  21  ;  Luke  x.  i  3)  referred  to 
by  Christ  as  sufficient  to  have  convicted  the 
wicked  cities  of  Tyre  and  Sidon,  had  they  been 
done  in  them,  we  know  nothing.  At  the  fust 
Passover  in  Jerusalem  "  many  believed  on  his 
name,  beholding  liis  signs  which  he  did"  (John 
ii.  23).  Of  these  signs  we  have  no  account 
whatever.  John  xx.  30  declares  :  "  And  many 
other  signs  truly  did  Jesus  in  the  presence  of 
his  disciples,  which  are  not  written  in  this 
book,"  and  John  xxi.  25  :  "And  there  are  also 
many  other  things  which  Jesus  did,  the  which, 
if  they  should  be  written  every  one,  I  suppose 
that  even  the  world  itself  could  not  contain 
the  books  which   should   be  written." 

3.  Many  also,  of  whom  we  have  the  barest 
mention,  believed  upon  him.  John  ii.  23  reads, 
"  many  believed  on  his  name,  beholding  the 
signs  which  he  did  ; "  and  in  John  iii.  26  the 
disciples  of  John  the  Baptist  are  reported  as 
saying,  "  Rabbi,  he  that  was'  with  thee  beyond 
Jordan,  to  whom  thou  hast  borne  witness,  be- 
hold, the  same  bapti/.eth,  and  all  men  come  to 
him."     John  the  Baptist   had  such  success  in 


112     INTRODUCTION   TO    THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS. 

drawing  the  multitudes  unto  him  and  making 
disciples,  that  Matthew  (iii.  5,  6)  wrote:  "Then 
went  out  unto  him  Jerusalem  and  all  Judea, 
and  all  the  region  round  about  Jordan ;  and 
they  were  baptized  of  him  in  the  river  Jordan, 
confessing  their  sins;"  and  yet  the  Fourth  Gos- 
pel represents  the  success  of  Jesus  as  greater 
in  number  of  disciples  secured  (John  iv.  1-3), 
"  When  therefore  the  Lord  knew  how  that  the 
Pharisees  had  heard  that  Jesus  was  making  and 
baptizing  more  disciples  than  John,"  etc.  Be- 
cause of  the  raising  of  Lazarus  many  Jews 
went  away  and  believed  on  Jesus  (John  xii.  11); 
and  at  another  time  even  some  of  the  rulers 
believed  upon  him,  yet  fearing  the  Pharisees, 
and  loving  the  praise  of  men,  did  not  confess 
him  (John  xii.  42).  Of  all  these  persons  the 
narrative  gives  only  these  brief  allusions. 

It  is  obvious,  therefore,  that  an  exhaustive 
record  of  the  life  of  Jesus  does  not  exist.  The 
best  we  have  is  deficient  in  an  account  of  the 
words  and  the  works  and  the  effects  of  Jesus 
on  the  hearts  of  men.  The  life  is  plainly  more 
than  the  record.  The  record  condenses  and 
epitomizes ;  the  life  was  vast  and  full.  The 
record  is  fragmentary  and  presents  gaps  ;  the 
life  was  continuous.  What  is  recorded  must 
be  regarded  as  specimens  of  the  whole.     The 


THE  GOSPELS;  THEIR  GENERAL  CHARACTER.     113 

main  features  are  delineated,  the  chief  charac- 
teristics are  brought  out.  Yet  whoever  studies 
the  life  of  Jesus,  in  order  to  use  the  material 
with  proper  appreciation,  must  leave  a  place  in 
every  calculation  for  the  unwritten  part.  As  a 
practical  consequence  the  elements  of  that  life, 
and  the  details  of  its  existence  on  the  earth, 
will  necessarily  assume  larger  proportions.  In 
problems  of  New  Testament  chronology,  where 
the  data  at  hand  seem  to  allow  choice  between 
a  shorter  and  a  longer  period  of  time,  the  care- 
ful student  of  historic  conditions  will  gradually 
acquire  the  tendency  to  accept  the  longer  pe- 
riod as  the  more  likely  to  be  the  true  one, 
since  it  the  better  makes  allowances  for  the 
omissions  which  must  be  assumed. 

Strauss  and  Baur  ^  have  laid  emphasis  upon 
the  natural  tendency  of  men  to  fashion  and  in- 
vent marvels,  and  Renan^  has  pointed  out  the 
equally  natural  tendency  to  idealize  and  mag- 
nify virtues  and  excellences  in  a  hero  ;  but  a  no 
less  patent  tendency  exists  in  men  to  ignore 
that  which  is  above  them,  and  turn  from  that 
which  seems  to  them  impossible,  or  even  diffi- 
cult, to  understand.      Jesus  himself  said  (John 

1  David  Friedrich  Strauss,  in  Das  Leben  Jesti,  1S35  ;  and  Ferdi- 
nand Christian  Baur,  founder  of  the  Tiibingen  School  of  Critics, 
active  with  iiis  pen  from  iSv  to  1S53. 

■-  Joseph  Erneste  Kenan,  in  La  Vie  Je  Jc-sus,  1S63. 


114      INTRODUCTION    TO    THE  LIFE   OF  JESUS. 

xvi.  12),  "  I  have  yet  many  things  to  say  unto 
you,  but  ye  cannot  bear  them  now."  No 
teacher  can  do  his  best  work  save  with  those 
pupils  who  are  capable  of  appreciating  him  ; 
and  no  pupil  can  correctly  report  a  teacher  un- 
less the  pupil  is  capable  of  understanding  all 
that  the  teacher  has  said.  In  most  cases  that 
which  is  not  understood  is  not  reported.  Emi- 
nence 'cannot  be  portrayed  by  mediocrity.  A 
divine  being  described  by  men  must  be  reduced 
in  proportions  to  the  point  of  human  compre- 
hension. Perspective  foreshortens  ;  distance 
belittles.  Divinity  alone  can  comprehend  di- 
vinity. The  apostles  were  but  men ;  much, 
therefore,  of  the  noblest,  best,  most  spiritual 
in  a  revelation  of  the  Divine  they  could  not  ob- 
serve, and  consequently  must  necessarily  have 
failed  to  report. 

Some  men  approach  the  New  Testament 
with  a  foregone  conclusion  against  the  super- 
natural. Miracles  they  account  for  by  the  ten- 
dency to  invent  and  enlarge.  But  it  is  just  as 
scientific  a  postulate  to  assume  that  everything 
recorded  has  been  toned  down  and  reduced  in 
dimensions  to  suit  the  capacity  of  the  witnesses. 
Indeed,  neither  attitude  of  mind  is  sound  and 
scientific.  The  one  tendency  may  be  an  offset 
to   the  other.     To   recognize   both   will   enable 


THE  GOSPELS;  THEIR  GENERAL  CHARACTER.     11 5 

the  investigator  in  a  goml  measure  to  avoid 
both.  He  must  be  open  to  conviction.  He 
must  h)ok  for  evidence,  and  must  weigh  not  the 
testimony  alone,  but  the  witnesses  who  give  it, 
considering  their  chronological  relations  to  the 
facts  reported,  their  ability  to  comprehend,  their 
disposition  to  thrust  themselves  forward  or  to 
keep  their  themes  uppermost,  and  their  ten- 
dency to  modify  the  record  either  by  subtrac- 
tion or  addition. 


CHAPTER    XII. 

THE    CHRISTIAN    SOURCES.  ARE    THE    GOSPELS 

HISTORIC    DOCUMENTS  .? 

We  must  determine  in  what  light  we  will 
look  at  the  New  Testament  record.  Were  the 
Gospels  written,  as  other  documents  have  been 
written,  by  men  who  knew  the  subjects  about 
which  they  wrote ;  and,  because  knowing  them, 
were  thereby  qualified  to  write .-'  In  other 
words,  before  rightly  studying  the  New  Testa- 
ment, we  must  fix  in  some  measure  our  idea  of 
inspiration,  at  least  defining  it  on  the  negative 
side,  so  as  to  distinguish  it  from  some  obviously 
faulty  notions  recently  —  and,  unfortunately,  in 
many  places  still  —  current. 

If  one  idea  of  inspiration  were  to  prevail,  it 
would  be  unnecessary  for  us  to  undertake  to 
treat  the  documents  as  historic,  written  in  an- 
tiquity, near  the  time  of  the  events  described, 
and  by  men  fully  acquainted  with  those  events. 
Indeed,  it  would  be  folly ;  for,  if  God  has  made 
known  to  men  precisely  what  to  write,  it  is  im- 
material when  they  write,  whether  one  day,  one 
year,  or  one  thousand  years  after  the  event. 
116 


y^RE    THE   GOSPELS  HISTORIC   DOCUMENTS?     117 

The  omniscience  of  God  can  as  easily  bridge  a 
wide  as  a  narrow  chasm  ;  and  it  would  be  idle 
to  measure  the  chasm  at  all,  to  say  nothing  of 
measuring  it  down  to  the  line  gradations  of  the 
most  careful  instruments  with  which  modern 
scholarship  is  equipped.  If  God  dictated  the 
New  Testament,  and  the  record  is  fully  his, 
it  would  make  no  difference  whatever  whether 
Tacitus  and  Pliny  and  Suetonius  and  Lucian 
alluded  to  Christ,  or  not.  God  needs  no  such 
corroborative  testimony.  It  would  be  little 
short  of  blasphemous  to  try  to  substantiate  his 
statements  by  such  puny  witnesses.  Grant  the 
extreme  view  of  inspiration,  and  the  investiga- 
tion of  manuscripts  and  monuments  and  author- 
ities is  useless,  our  whole  inquiry  as  to  sources 
is  vain.  There  is  practically  but  one  source, 
God. 

I  refer  to  the  mechanical,  or  verbal,  theory 
of  inspiration.  This  theory,  in  its  extreme 
form,  held  that  God  took  complete  possession 
of  a  man,  and  made  him  write  divine  thoughts 
in  language  chosen  in  every  particular  by  the 
divine  mind,  just  as  now  I  make  my  pen  obey 
me  and  write  what  I  will.^      But  if  this  theory 

1  Kev.  Washington  Gladden,  W'/io  Wrote  the  Bible?  p.  4^1,  says, 
"  It  seems  to  me  that  the  advocacy  of  the  verbal  theory  of  inspiration 
comes  perilously  near  to  the  sin  against  the  Holy  Ghost." 


118      INTRODUCTION   TO   THE  LIFE   OF  JESUS 

were  a  true  explanation  of  the  relation  which 
God  holds  to  the  New  Testament  and  its 
writers,  a  relation  which  we  are  pleased  to  call 
inspiration,  let  us  see  what  we  might  then 
reasonably  expect  to  follow. 

I.  If  equally  inspired,  the  Gospels  would  be 
either  alike,  each  exactly  duplicating  the  others, 
or  supplementary  each  to  the  others,  like  the 
chapters  of  a  book  in  literary  sequence.  In 
either  case  there  would  be  but  one  Gospel, 
where  now  we  have  four :  for,  if  they  were 
alike,  they  would  be  but  one  Gospel,  four  times 
repeated  ;  and,  if  they  were  in  sequence,  they 
would  then  be  but  one  Gospel,  four  times  as 
long  as  now.  On  the  theory  that  nothing  was 
duplicated,  Andreas  Osiander,  one  of  the  re- 
formers, constructed  a  harmony  of  the  Gospels 
by  stringing  out  the  events  of  Christ's  life  and 
speech,  as  recorded  in  the  four  accounts,  one 
after  the  other,  without  recognizing  them  in 
any  manner  as  parallel.^ 

1  Published  in  1537.  Dr.  Schaff,  History  of  the  Christian 
Church,  vol.  vi.,  p.  570,  says,  Osiander  "  published  a  mechanical  Gos- 
pel harmony  at  the  request  of  Archbishop  Cranmer,  who  had  mar- 
ried his  niece."  Professor  Weiss,  The  Life  of  Christ,  English 
translation,  p.  20,  holds  this  harmony  of  Osiander  up  to  good- 
natured  ridicule.  "  Even  to  the  Wiirtemberg  prelate,  Bengel,  the 
miracle  that  Jesus  wrought  upon  the  mother-in-law  of  Peter  appeared 
greater  if  lasting  health  followed  it,  than  if  she  had  still  required  to 
have  one  or  two  relapses,  in  order  to  be  able  to  make  two  or  three 
out  of  one  miraculous  cure." 


ARE    THH  GOSPELS  HISTORIC   DOCUMENTS  >     111* 

2.  Divine  ins[)ii"ati()n  in  penning;,  of  this  me- 
chanical sort,  is  worthless  unless  it  be  followed 
by  an  equally  divine  supervision,  of  the  same 
mechanical  sort,  in  copying,  preserving,  trans- 
lating, and  interpreting.  Such  inspiration  in 
ancient  time  would  be  absolutely  worthless  for 
us  to-day  without  this  complete  supervision  for 
the  transmission  to  us  of  the  record.  Every 
generation  would  require  its  own  revelation,  un- 
less such  supervision  were  guaranteed.  Every 
scribe  who  ever  made  a  copy  would  need  as 
much  inspiration  as  the  original  writer  ;  and  in 
the  time  of  printing  the  whole  would  be  viti- 
ated, unless  every  typesetter  anil  every  press- 
man and  every  proof-reader  and  every  corrector 
were  also  supernaturally  guarded  from  error. 
How  could  any,  save  Christians,  in  any  manner 
have  anything  to  do  either  with  the  reproduc- 
tion or  dissemination  of  the  Scriptures,  and 
they,  too,  of  the  most  spiritual  kind  of  Chris- 
tians, without  completely  destroying  the  divine 
value  .^  Indeed,  an  inspiration  of  the  kind  re- 
ferred to  would  be  worthless  for  the  reader 
unless  he  were  inspired  to  understand,  and 
were  miraculously  guarded  from  misinterpreta- 
tion. And  then  we  might  expect  that  the  su- 
pervision which  would  guard  the  interjiretation 
would  modify  the  individualities  of  men,  causing 


120      INTRODUCTION    TO    THE  LIFE   OF  JESUS. 

all  who  read  the  Scriptures  to  see  and  under- 
stand exactly  alike. 

3.  Had  the  method  of  inspiration  been  ver- 
bal, we  might  reasonably  expect  that  those 
critical  problems  now  so  perplexing  to  the  stu- 
dent of  the  New  Testament  would  be  totally 
unknown.  There  would  have  been  no  unlike- 
ness  between  the  Fourth  Gospel  and  the  other 
three,  no  apparent  discrepancies  in  narrative  or 
event.  The  peculiarities  of  individuals  would 
be  wanting.  The  teaching  of  the  apostles,  in 
preaching  and  epistle,  which  is  called  "  Christ's 
Gospel,"  would  not  confront  us  as  something 
either  involved  in  the  words  of  Jesus,  unre- 
corded, or  suggested  by  the  Holy  Spirit  to  his 
followers  after  the  ascension.  This  apostolic 
teaching  emphasizes  four  points  not  made 
prominent,  if  indeed  recorded,  in  the  Gospels  : 
(i)  the  expiatory  significance  of  Christ's  death 
as  a  basis  for  the  believer's  acceptance  with 
God,  i.  e.,  the  atonement ;  (2)  the  abiding  com- 
munion with  Christ  through  the  Holy  Spirit, 
which  gives  its  possessor  a  new  spiritual  life ; 
(3)  the  resurrection  of  Christ  as  a  proof  of  our 
resurrection ;  and  (4)  Christ's  return  as  the 
time  for  completing  his  work  of  salvation. 
These  things  are  plainly  taught  in  the  Acts  of 
the  Apostles  and  the  Epistles.     They  are  very 


ARE   THE  GOSPELS  HISTORIC  DOCUMENTS?     121 

obscure  in  the  Gospels,  if  indeed  they  are 
there  at  all.  On  the  theory  of  verbal  inspira- 
tion, the  omission  of  these  principles  from  the 
account  of  Christ's  teaching  is  inexplicable. 
They  are  fundamental,  cardinal  doctrines  in 
Paul's  theology.  But  another  view  of  inspira- 
tion recognizes  progress  among  the  disciples  of 
Jesus  in  their  reception  of  truth,  remembers 
the  words  of  Jesus  that  the  Holy  Spirit  should 
be  given  the  disciples  in  order  to  call  to  their 
remembrance  what  the  Master  had  said  unto 
them  and  to  lead  them  into  all  truth,  and  notes 
the  confession  of  Jesus  that  he  had  many  things 
which  he  could  not  say  unto  them  then  because 
they  lacked  at  that  time  capacity  to  appreciate. 
A  theory  such  as  this  can  discern  the  essential 
harmony  in  the  midst  of  differences  in  the  Bible. 

4.  If  the  theory  of  verbal  inspiration  were 
true,  then  an  investigation  into  the  antiquity 
of  a  document,  and  the  relation  of  its  author  to 
the  facts  recorded,  would  be  useless.  By  verbal 
inspiration  a  man  of  to-day  could  just  as  well 
write  a  life  of  Jesus  as  could  one  of  his  apos- 
tles or  any  other  contemporary. 

5.  If  the  theory  of  verbal  inspiration  were 
true,  then  the  motive  for  writing  would  have 
been  from  God,  and  not  from  the  man  himself.' 

1  See  Weiss'  The  Life  of  Christ,  English  Translation,  vol.  i.,  p.  20. 


122     INTRODUCTION    TO    THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS. 

John  does  not  speak  of  the  Holy  Spirit  com- 
pelling him  to  write  when  he  gives  his  reasons 
for  writing  (xx.  31):  "But  these  are  written 
that  ye  might  believe  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ, 
the  Son  of  God ;  and  that  believing  ye  might 
have  life  through  his  name."  In  another  place 
John  lays  stress,  not  upon  what  the  Holy  Spirit 
had  communicated,  but  upon  what  he  himself 
had  seen,  "  And  the  Word  was  made  flesh,  and 
dwelt  among  us  (and  we  beheld  his  glory,  the 
glory  as  of  the  only  begotten  of  the  father), 
full  of  grace  and  truth"  (i.  14);^  and  in  an> 
other  place  the  truthfulness  of  his  testimony  is 
declared  on  the  ground  of  his  having  person- 
ally witnessed  what  he  relates  :  "  And  he  that 
hath  seen  hath  borne  witness,  and  his  witness 
is  true  :  and  we  know  that  he  saith  true,  that 
ye  also  may  believe"  (xix.  35).  The  confir- 
mation appended  to  his  Gospel  recognizes  the 
writer's  truthfulness  in  the  same  terms  :  "  This 
is  the  disciple  which  beareth  witness  of  these 
things  and  wrote  these  things :  and  we  know 
that  his  witness  is  true  "  (xxi.  24),  Luke  still 
more  explicitly  refers  to  his  literary  motive,  and 
puts  his  attempt  upon  exactly  the  same  basis 
as  other  literary  ventures,  which,  because  lost, 
ghow  that   the   Holy  Spirit,   if  given  to  them, 

I  Cf.  I  John  i.  I. 


/1RF.    THf:    GOSPELS  HISTORIC  DOCUMENTS  ?     12:] 

was  in  them  not  effectual  for  a  iK-rmancnt  rev- 
elation to  the  world.  Luke  says  (i.  1-4),  "  l-'or- 
asmuch  as  many  have  taken  in  hand  to  draw 
up  a  narrative  concerning  those  matters  which 
have  been  fulfilled  among  us,  even  as  they  de- 
livered them  unto  us,  which  from  the  bejrinninjr 
were  eye-witnesses  and  ministers  of  the  woril, 
it  seemed  good  to  mc  also,  having  traced  the 
course  of  all  things  accurately  from  the  first, 
to  write  unto  thee  in  order,  most  excellent  The- 
ophilus,  that  thou  mightest  know  the  certainty 
concerning  the  things  wherein  thou  wast  in- 
structed." 

We  cannot,  therefore,  look  upon  our  sources 
in  the  light  of  that  mechanical,  or  verbal,  the- 
ory of  inspiration.  Nor  does  it  now  concern 
us  immediately  to  construct  another  theory. 
Definition  may  well  wait  upon  investigation. 
We  have  already  seen  from  uninspired  sources, 
the  heathen  and  the  Jewish  testimonies  to  the 
life  of  Jesus,  that  Jesus  Christ  actually  lived  at 
the  beginning  of  our  era,  when  Tiberius  was 
emperor  at  Rome  and  Pontius  Pilate  was  proc- 
urator of  Judea;  we  have  seen  that  this  jierson- 
age,  Jesus  Christ,  was  crucified  as  a  malefactor, 
and  yet  that,  after  this  ignominious  death,  his 
teaching  and  influence  survived  so  powerfully 
that  everywhere  the  numbers  increased  of  men 


124     INTRODUCTION   TO    THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS. 

who  spoke  his  name  in  reverence,  imitated  his 
example,  and,  assured  of  a  future  life,  preferred 
to  die  for  him  rather  than  in  any  measure  to 
renounce  his  mastership  over  them  in  this  life. 
The  institutions  which  have  grown  up  in  his 
name  —  indeed,  all  the  events  in  history  since 
his  time  —  indicate  the  entrance  of  a  more  than 
human  life  into  the  world  when  this  Christ 
came  amongst  men.  We  do  not  need,  then,  a 
theory  of  inspiration  to  prove  to  us  the  fact  of 
Christ's  life.  Let  us,  therefore,  for  the  present 
be  content  to  approach  the  record  containing 
the  details  of  that  life  without  any  theory. 
Let  us  look  at  the  record  in  a  purely  historical 
spirit,  and  treat  it  as  any  other  historical  mate- 
rial. Let  us  see  if  it  will  stand  this  test,  and 
then  vindicate  to  us  its  essential  truthfulness, 
and  at  length  disclose  to  us  the  correct  idea  of 
inspiration.  Whence  should  we  derive  our  no- 
tions of  inspiration,  if  not  from  the  Bible .'' 
Should  we  not  draw  our  theory  from  it,  rather 
than  take  our  theory  to  it  1  ^ 

1  See  Professor  George  T.  Ladd's  Doctrine  of  Sacred  Scripture., 
vol.  i.,  p.  370,  and  chaps,  v.-vii.,  pp.  452-494  ;  Rev.  R.  F.  Horton's 
Inspiration  and  the  Bible;  and  Rev.  C.  J.  Vaughan's  The  Epistle  to 
the  Hebrews,  Appendix  I.,  pp.  311-316. 


CHAPTER    XIII. 

THE    CHRISTIAN    SOURCES  THE    GOSPELS  J    THE 

TIME    OF    THEIR    COMPOSITION. 

In  the  historical  si)irit  our  first  inquiries 
concerning  the  Gosi)els  would  naturally  re- 
late to  the  time  of  their  origin  :  when  were 
they  written  ?  was  it  at  a  time  in  close  con- 
nection with  the  events  described  ?  and  do  the 
authors  write  from  personal  knowledge  or  from 
hearsay  ? 

The  New  Testament  which  we  use  to-day  was 
used,  practically  as  we  use  it,  by  Luther  and 
Wickliffe  and  Augustine  and  Chrysostom.  It 
would  not  be  necessary,  indeed  it  would  l)c 
tedious,  to  cite  all  the  witnesses  for  the  exis- 
tence of  the  Gospels  through  all  the  centuries 
behind  us.  But  from  the  fourth  century  back- 
ward the  number  is  smaller.  We  will  exam- 
ine a  chain  of  these  back  to  the  time  of  the 
apostles. 

Jerome,  in  the  introduction  to  his  Commen- 
tary on  Matthew,  and  also  in  the  preface  to  the 
Vulgate  Version    of    the    New  Testament    a<l- 

125 


126     INTRODUCTION   TO    THE  LIFE   OF  JESUS. 

dressed  to  Pope  Damasus  in  a.d.  383,  mentions 
the  four  Gospels  by  name,  and,  with  reference 
to  Ezek.  i.  10  and  x.  14,  maintains  that  four  is 
the  divinely  appointed  number. 

Epiphanius,  who  died  in  a.d.  403,  in  his 
Panariwn  (Bk.  II.,  chap,  i.)  describes  the  four 
Gospels,  and  explicitly  states  that  they  are  all. 

Eusebius,  rightly  termed  "  The  Father  of 
Church  History,"  in  his  history,^  which  he 
brings  down  to  a.d.  324,  enumerates  among 
the  canonical  books  of  the  New  Testament 
our  four  Gospels. 

A  century  before  Eusebius,  Origen  of  Alex- 
andria distinguishes  three  classes  of  New  Tes- 
tament writings ;  authentic,  spurious,  and  a 
middle  class  in  regard  to  which  he  is  in  doubt. 
The  four  Gospels  which  we  now  possess  are 
mentioned  among  the  undoubtedly  genuine 
books.2 

In  1740,  an  Italian  named  Muratori  found  in 
the  Ambrosian  Library  at  Milan  a  manuscript 

1  Bk.  III.,  chap,  xxiv.,  xxv. ;  Bk.  VI.,  chap.  xiv. 

2  Origen  died  about  a.d.  254.  lie  gives  no  formal  Hst,  but  the 
classification  is  gathered  from  his  works.  He  wrote  commentaries, 
not  now  e.xtant,  on  Matthew,  Luke,  and  John.  He  cites  Matthew  in 
De  Principiis,  Bk.  1.,  chap,  ii.,  §  8  ;  Luke  in  Against  Celstis,  Bk.  I., 
chap.  Ixiii. ;  John  in  De  Priiuifiis,  Bk.  I.,  chap,  i.,  §  i,  chap,  ii., 
§  3,  chap,  vi.,  §  2,  and  chap,  vii.,  §  i  ;  "the  Gospels"  in  De  Princi- 
piis,  Bk.  II.,  chap,  iv.,  §  i,  2;  and  "the  New  Testament"  in  De 
Princijtiis,  Bk.  I.,  chap,  ii.,  §  S. 


GOSPELS;   TIME  OF   THEIR   COMPOSITION.     lliT 

of  the  seventh  or  eighth  century  in  Latin,  hut 
evidently  a  translation  of  a  Greek  document 
written  between  a.d.  160  and  a.d.  170,  as  a 
statement  that  it  was  written  in  the  time  of 
Pius  indicates.  This  document  gives  a  list  of 
the  writings  belonging  to  the  New  Testament. 
It  is  called,  therefore,  the  Muratorian  Canon.* 
It  begins  in  the  middle  of  a  sentence  evidently 
referring  to  Mark,  and  then  speaks  of  Luke  as 
occupying  the  third  place  in  the  collection,  and 
then  describes  the  Gospel  of  John.  It  there- 
fore practically  gives  evidence  to  the  existence 
of  the  four  Gospels.  That  Luke  is  the  third, 
and  Mark  has  been  already  mentioned,  obviously 
points  to  one  preceding  Mark,  which  we  can 
safely  assume  to  be  our  Matthew. 

Clement  of  Alexandria,  who  wrote  during  the 
reign  of  the  Emperor  Severus,  that  is,  in  a.d. 
193  to  A.D.  211,  regards  our  four  Gospels  as 
canonical.- 

Tertullian,  who  was  born  about  a.d.  i  50,  and 

1  See  Westcott's  History  of  the  Canon  of  the  New  Testament, 
p.  211  sq.,  and  Appendix  C,  pp.  521-538;  Charteris'  Canonicily,  pp. 
Ixxix-lxxxi. 

'■^  His  testimony  in  regard  to  the  origin  of  the  Gospels  of  Mark 
and  John  is  preserved  by  Eusebius  (Church  History,  Bk.  VI.,  chap. 
14)  from  Clement's  Hypotyposcs,  now  lost.  He  quotes  Matthew  and 
Luke  in  Stromata,  Bk.  I.,  chap.  xxi.  In  Stromtua,  Bk.  HI.,  chap,  xiii., 
however,  he  quotes  a  saying  which  he  says  is  not  in  the /t)i/r  Gospels 
handed  down  to  us,  but  in  tlie  one  according  to  the  Egyptians. 


128     INTRODUCTION   TO    THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS. 

died  after  a.d.  208,  recognizes  the  four  Gospels 
as  in  the  canon  already  established.^ 

Irenaeiis,  who  became  bishop  of  Lyons  in 
A.D.  177,  does  the  same.  In  his  treatise,  Agamst 
Heresies,^  he  says,  "  It  is  not  possible  that  the 
Gospels  can  be  either  more  or  fewer  in  number 
than  they  are.  For  since  there  are  four  zones 
of  the  world  in  which  we  live,  and  four  princi- 
pal winds,  while  the  church  is  scattered  through- 
out the  world,  and  the  '  pillar  and  ground '  of 
the  church  is  the  Gospel  and  the  spirit  of  life, 
it  is  fitting  that  she  should  have  four  pillars 
breathing  out  immortality  on  every  side,  and 
vivifying  men  afresh."  And  then  the  figures 
of  a  lion,  a  calf,  a  man,  and  an  eagle,  of  Rev.  iv.  7,^ 
are  applied  to  our  four  Gospels. 

We  have  now  seen  that  in  the  fourth  century, 
when  Jerome  and  Epiphanius  and  Eusebius 
wrote;  and  in  the  third  century,  when  Origen 
was  active  with  his  pen  ;  and  in  the  last  quarter 
of  the  second,  at  the  time  of  Clement  of  Alex- 
andria and  Tertullian  and  Irenseus,  when,  too, 
the  Canon  of  Muratori  was  compiled,  —  the  four 
Gospels  have  ample  vindication.  How  much 
earlier  did  they  exist } 

1  He  mentions  the  authors  by  name  as  apostles  and  apostolic 
men,  Against  Marcion,  Bk.  IV.,  chap.  ii. 

2  Bk.  111.,  chap,  xi.,  §  8,  cf.  chap,  i.,  and  chap,  xi.,  §  7. 

3  Cf.  Ezek.  i.  10;  x.  14. 


GOSPELS;    TIME   OF   THEIR   COMPOSITION.      120 

Tatian,^  a  pupil  of  Justin  Martyr,  made  a  con- 
tinuous narrative  out  of  our  four  Gospels  in 
about  A.D.  1 60,  which  bears  the  name  Diates- 
saron.  An  Arabic  manuscript  of  this  work, 
obtained  in  Egypt,  was  printed  in  1888  with  a 
Latin  translation,  in  honor  of  the  jubilee  of 
Pope  Leo's  priesthood.  In  1894  a  translation 
into  English  by  Rev.  J.  Hamlyn  Hill,  B.D.,  was 
published  under  the  title,  TJic  Earliest  Life  of 
Christ  ever  Compiled  frotn  the  Foicr  Gospels.  Mr. 
Hill  has  designated  this  work  rightly ;  it  is  a 
compilation  from  our  four  Gospels,  and  not  a  har- 
mony, as  often  called,  and  at  the  early  time  of  its 
composition  proves  the  existence  of  the  Gospels 
which  we  now  regard  as  canonical,  and  practically 
of  no  others,  for  it  seems  to  draw  from  no  others. 

Justin,  who  has  been  canonized  as  a  saint, 
and  is  commonly  known  as  Justin  Martyr,  in 
consequence  of  the  violent  death  he  is  said  to 
have  suffered,  was  a  pagan  philosopher  in  Pales- 

1  See  Professor  Harnack,  "  Tatian,"  Encyc.  Brit.,  vol.  x-xiii.,  pp. 
80,  Si  ;  Professor  J.  M.  Fuller, "  Tatianus,"  Z>;Vi';(?«ar>' 0/ C/<r/.r//'a« 
Biography,  vol.  iv.,  pp.  783-S04  ;  Professor  J.  Rendel  Harris,  "  Tatian 
and  the  Fourth  Gospel,"  Contemporary  Review,  December,  1S93,  p.  Soo 
sq.  Walter  R.  Cassel  in  "  The  Diatessaron  of  Tatian,"  Contemporary 
Review,  .^pril,  1895,  pp.  665-6S1,  gives  less  value  to  the  Diatessaron 
than  do  most  critics,  (i)  because  witnesses  for  it  are  late  and  few, 
Eusebius  being  the  first  to  mention  it ;  and  (2)  because  at  the  time -of 
its  composition,  set  by  Cassel  at  a.d.  175-180,  Tatian,  a  heretic, 
would  readily  have  used  Gospels  not  long  existing,  and  not  widely 
sanctioned  by  the  church. 


ioO      INTRODUCTION    TO    THE  LIFE   OF  JESUS. 

tine  in  the  time  of  Antoninus  Pius,  studying  in 
the  various  scliools  of  philosophy  for  some 
knowledge  which  would  satisfy  the  cravings  of 
his  soul.  "  At  last  he  became  acquainted  with 
Christianity,  being  at  once  impressed  with  the 
extraordinary  fearlessness  which  the  Christians 
displayed  in  the  presence  of  death,  and  with  the 
grandeur,  stability,  and  truth  of  the  teachings  of 
the  Old  Testament.  From  this  time  he  acted 
as  an  evangelist,  taking  every  opportunity  to 
proclaim  the  Gospel  as  the  only  safe  and  certain 
philosophy,  the  only  way  to  salvation."  ^  Among 
many  writings  from  Justin's  pen  three  of  special 
importance  are  now  at  hand  :  two  Apologies,  one 
addressed  to  Antoninus  Pius,  the  emperor,  and 
through  him  to  his  sons  and  the  Roman  senate 
and  the  whole  Roman  people,  the  other  ad- 
dressed directly  to  the  Roman  senate,  and  a 
lengthy  Dialogue  zvitJi  TiypJio,  a  Jew,  whom 
Justin  tries  to  convince  of  the  appearance  of 
the  Messiah  in  Jesus,  and  of  the  reality  of 
Christianity.  Justin  composed  these  works  in 
the  decade  between  a.d.  140  and  a.d.  150.  In 
them  he  repeatedly  quotes  from  documents 
which  he  calls  "the  memoirs  of  the  Apostles."  ^ 

1  From  introduction  by  Drs.  Dods  and  Reith,  The  Ante-Nicene 
Fathers  (Christian  Lit.  Co.),  vol.  i.,  p.  i6o. 

2  Apology  1.,  chap.lxvi.,  Dialogue  c,  ci.,  ciii.,  cv.,  cvii,  et  passim. 


GOSPELS;    TIME  OF   THEIR   COMPOSITION.     181 

These  quotations,  all  scholars  have  for  a  long 
time  agreed,  referred  to  our  first  three  Gospels  ; 
and  in  consequence  of  the  very  able  work  of 
the  late  Ezra  Abbot,'  the  Fourth  Gospel  is  also 
recognized,  with  almost  equal  unanimity,  as  in- 
cluded in  the  citations. 

Papias  is  the  next  witness  of  importance  to 
summon.  He  died  in  a.d.  163,  and  must  have 
written  at  about  the  time  that  Justin  Martyr 
did.^  He  is  known  to  us  only  through  other 
Fathers  who  quote  him.  He  wrf)te  An  Exposi- 
tion, of  the  Oracles  of  Onr  Lord^  supposed  to 
refer  to  our  Gospels,  though  not  enough  is 
known  concerning  the  work  to  establish  clearly 
its  character.  As  quoted  by  Euscbius,  Papias 
bears  testimony  to  the  Gospels  of  Matthew  and 
Mark,  and  relates  how  they  were  composed,  the 
former   in  Hebrew,  the   latter  to   preserve  the 

1  Critical  Rssays,  "  The  Authorsiiip  of  the  Fourth  Gospel,"  pp. 
9-112;  also  The  Fourth  Gospel,  by  Abbot,  Fe.ibotly,  and  I.ightfoot, 
pp.  3-106.  Wilhelm  Bousset,  iSoi,  Die  Evangeliencitate  Jiistins 
des  Martyr ers  in  ihrcm  Wert  fUr  die  Evangelic nkr it ik,  reviewed  in 
The  Critical  Review,  vol.  i.,  p.  260,  accepts  it  as  established  that 
Justin  used  our  four  Gospels,  and  attempts  to  show  only  tliat  he 
used  an  earlier  one  now  lost.  A  writer  in  The  Saturday  Keiino 
(London),  Jan.  11,  1S90,  in  reviewing  Kev.  Dr.  G.  T.  Purves's 
lectures  before  Princeton  Theological  Seminary  on  "  The  Testimony 
of  Justin  Martyr  to  Early  Christianity,"  said,  "  Dr.  Purves  main- 
tains, what  few  jjeople  now  doubt,  that  Justin  used  all  our  four 
Gospels." 

2  See  Donaldson's  The  Apostolical  Fathers,  cha.^.  vi.,  pp.  393-402. 

8   Koyioiv  KvpiaKu>v  i^rjyri<Ti<;. 


132     INTRODUCTION    TO    THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS. 

reminiscences  of  Peter.  Papias  shows  that  at 
his  time  living  tradition  was  still  available,  and 
to  him  was  more  satisfactory  even  than  written 
sources.  Before  his  time,  therefore,  we  cannot 
expect  to  find  abundant  testimony  to  the  written 
sources,  for  eye-witnesses  are  still  at  hand  and 
are  preferred. 

This  is  what  Papias  says  :  "  If,  then,  any  one 
came,  who  had  been  a  follower  of  the  elders,  I 
questioned  him  in  regard  to  the  words  of  the 
elders,  —  what  Andrew  or  what  Peter  said,  or 
what  was  said  by  Philip,  or  by  Thomas,  or  by 
James,  or  by  John,  or  by  Matthew,  or  by  any 
other  of  the  disciples  of  the  Lord,  and  what 
things  Aristion  and  the  presbyter  John  say. 
For  I  did  not  think  that  what  was  to  be  gotten 
from  the  books  would  profit  me  as  much 
as  what  came  from  the  living  and  abiding 
voice."! 

That  he  refers  to  books  in  comparison  with 
oral  testimony  upon  subjects  which  came  di- 
rectly from  the  apostles  shows  that  books  with 
similar  contents  and  purports  were  already  in 
existence  at  his  time.  And  yet  his  preference 
for  the  oral  testimony,  when  derived  directly 
from    apostolic    source,    indicates    a    historical 

1  McGiffert's  translation,  The  Nicene  and  Post-Niccne  Fathers, 
2d  series,  vol.  i.,  "  Eusebius,"  p.  171. 


GOSPELS;    TIME  OF   THEIR   COMPOSITION.     133 

spirit  ^  which  placed  value  upon  writings  and 
sayings,  not  as  the  utterances  of  men  whose 
reliability  is  assured  only  by  a  dogma  concern- 
ing inspiration,  but  of  men  who  were  in  suffi- 
ciently close  contact  with  the  deeds  and  sayings 
reported  to  know  the  accuracy  of  them  through 
human  means. 

From  the  period  before  Papias,  there  survive 
the  testimony  of  T/w  Slieplurd  of  Hennas,  the 
epistle  bearing  the  name  of  Barnabas,  the 
epistles  of  Polycarp  and  Ignatius,  the  so-called 
Teaching  of  tJic  Tzuclve  Apostles,  and  the  epistle 
of  Clement  of  Rome. 

Origen,  in  his  commentary  on  Romans,  con- 
jectured ^  that  the  Hernias  saluted  by  Paul  in 
the  sixteenth  chapter  of  his  epistle  to  the 
Romans  is  the  author  of  The  Shepherd  of  Her- 
nias. Many  have  followed  Origen  in  this  con- 
jecture. But  there  is  no  evidence  whatever  in 
support  of  this  claim,  its  only  basis  being  the 
likeness  of  names  ;  and  all  the  probabilities  are 
against  it.  The  most  certain  data  for  deter- 
mining the  time  of   composition   are  given  by 

1  This  historical  spirit  is  not  shared  by  all  the  writers  of  that 
day.  See  Ladd's  Doctrine  of  Sacred  Serif ture,  vol.  ii.,  p.  70; 
Westcott's  Introduction,  Appendi.\  B. 

2  Origen  states  it  simply  as  a  conjecture.  He  says,  "  I  fancy  that 
that  Hernias  is  the  author  of  the  tract  which  is  called  the  Shrf-hcrd, 
a  writing  wliich  seems  to  me  to  be  very  useful,  and  is,  as  I  fancy, 
divinely  inspired."' 


134      INTRODUCTION    TO    THE  LIFE   OF  JESUS. 

the  Muratorian  Canon,  which  says,  "  Hermas 
composed  the  Shepherd  very  lately,  in  our  times 
in  the  city  of  Rome,  while  the  Bishop  Pius, 
his  brother,  occupied  the  chair  of  the  Roman 
church."  The  episcopate  of  Pius  was  a.d.  141- 
I  56,  and  hence  the  date  of  composition  can  be 
easily  set  as  about  the  middle  of  the  second 
century.     This  is  the  date  usually  accepted. ^ 

The  Shepherd  contains  no  quotations  either 
from  the  Old  Testament  or  the  New  ;  and  this, 
said  Bishop  Lightfoot,^  is  because  of  its  devo- 
tional character.  The  only  direct  quotation  is 
from  an  apocryphal  work,  which  is  cited  as 
holy  scripture  :  "  The  Lord  is  nigh  unto  them 
who  return  to  him,  as  it  is  written  in  Eldad 
and  Modat,  who  prophesied  to  the  people  in  the 
wilderness,"  —  a  work  no  longer  extant.  But 
the  SJiepJierd  contains  similarities  and  allusions 
to  New  Testament  expressions,  particularly  to 
those  in  the  Epistle  of  James  and  the  Book  of 
Revelation.^ 

1  So  Holtzmann,  Einleitung  in  das  Neue  Testament,  p.  iii; 
Credner,  Geschtchte  des  Neue-Testament lichen  Kanons,  pp.  37,  42  ; 
Supernatural  Religion,  vol.  i.,  p.  253;  Dr.  Doellinger  set  the  date 
between  130  and  150  a.d.,  and  in  a  private  letter  to  Archdeacon 
Watkins  {Bampton  Lectures,  iSgo,  p.  45)  said,  "This  is  also  the 
prevailing  and  best  supported  opinion  among  German  theologians, 
both  Catholic  and  Protestant." 

2  Essays  on  Supernatjiral  Religion,  p.  271. 

3  Iloltzmann  {Einleitung,  p.  in)  adds  also  i  Cor.,  Eph.,  and 
"probably"  Ileb.,  i  Pet.,  and  Mark. 


GOSPELS;    TIME  OF   THEIR   COMPOSITION.     135 

But  the  most  important  contribution  to  our 
subject  which  the  Shepherd  affords  has  recently 
been  pointed  out  by  Dr.  C.  Taylor,  Master  of 
St.  John's  College,  Cambridge,  England.'  In 
my  account  of  this  document  in  Chapter  IX., 
I  stated  that  in  the  third  and  last  vision  the 
woman,  who  represented  the  church,  was  seated 
upon  a  bench  with  four  legs,  which  became  the 
permanent  possession  of  the  church.  Dr.  Tay- 
lor asks,  with  great  pertinence,  If  the  chair  is 
the  seat  of  authority  under  the  old  dispensation, 
what  can  the  new  bench,  which  stands  on  four 
feet,  signify  but  the  fourfold  Gosj:)el  .-'  This 
question  he  answers  in  the  afTirmative,  and 
arrays  many  considerations  in  support  of  his 
position,  the  chief  of  which  perhaps  is  the  sug- 
gestion that  Irenxus,  in  stating  so  emphatically 
the  necessity  of  four  Gospels  and  of  four  only, 
is  but  re-echoing  the  sentiment  of  Hermas. 
This  explanation  of  the  significance  of  the  four- 
legged  bench  has  been  received  with  general 
assent  since  it  was  first  propounded.^ 

The  document  known  as  The  lipistle  of 
Barnabas  has  itself  been  looked  upon  as  of 
apostolic  origin  and  sacred  character,  and  has 

1  The  Witness  of  Hermas  to  the  Pour  Gosfels,  London,  1S92. 

2  See  Professor  Marcus  Dods,  The  Expositor,  September,  1S02, 
p.  229  sq.;  Dr.  A.  Plummer,  The  Thinker,  January,  1S93,  p.  92  sq.; 
rtr.  John  Massie,   The  Ctili^al  Kr.ini;  vol.  ii.  (1892),  p.  y-T,  sq. 


136     INTRODUCTION   TO    THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS. 

even  found  a  place  in  the  canon  of  the  New 
Testament.  Jerome '  puts  it  among  the  apoc- 
ryphal books  ;  Eusebius^  speaks  of  it  as  among 
the  rejected  writings  ;  Origen  ^  quotes  it  with- 
out expressing  a  judgment  as  to  its  authenti- 
city ;  while  Codex  Sinaiticus,  one  of  our  oldest 
New  Testament  manuscripts,  has  it  appended 
to  the  New  Testament  books,  as  though  belong- 
ing in  the  same  category.  This  uncertainty  in 
regard  to  its  place  in  the  canon  is  due  to  un- 
certainty in  regard  to  its  authorship.  By  many 
it  was  supposed  to  have  been  written  by  the 
companion  of  Paul,  but  this  by  internal  evidence 
can  now  be  shown  impossible.  Its  author  must 
have  been  either  some  other  Barnabas,  or  some 
one  who  employed  that  name  to  give  authority 
to  his  work.  It  seeks  to  make  evident  the 
superiority  of  the  new  over  the  old  dispensa- 
tion. It  could  not  have  been  written  earlier 
than  A.D.  70,  nor  later  than  a.d.  132.  Its  prob- 
able date  is  a.d.  119.  It  frequently  shows  a 
familiarity  with  New  Testament  thought,  and 
yet  does  not  quote  the  Gospels  save  in  one 
place,*  where  the  expression,  "  There  be  many 

1  De  Viris  Illustribtts,  chap.  vi. 

2  Church  History,  Bk.  III.,  chap.  xxv. 

3  De  Principiis,  Bk.   III.,  chap,  ii.,  and  Against  Celsus,  Bk.  I., 
chap.  Ixiii. 

4  Chap,  iv.,  at  end.  , 


GOSPELS;    TIME   OF    THEIR   COMPOSITION.     137 

called,  but  few  chosen  "  (Matt.  xxii.  14),  is  intro- 
duced by  "as  it  is  written,"  '  a  phrase  which  at 
that  time  was  recognized  as  the  technical  form 
for  introducing  a  saying  from  the  Scriptures  of 
the  Old  Testament.  Now,  we  know  in  what 
esteem  the  writings  of  the  Old  Testament  were 
held  by  men  of  the  first  and  second  centuries. 
If,  therefore,  the  writer  of  this  epistle  intro- 
duces a  saying  from  the  New  Testament  with 
the  same  expression  which  he  and  others  of 
his  day  have  habitually  employed  in  citing  the 
words  of  their  acknowledged  Scripture,  it  is 
evident  that  a  similar  respect  is  now  paid  to 
the  document  which  contains  this  Matthew 
quotation. 

Polycarp2  of  Smyrna  wrote  an  epistle  to  the 
church  in  Philippi  which  can  be  dated  as  imme- 
diately following  the  martyrdom  of  Ignatius, 
and  this  very  plainly  occurred  either  in  .\.d.  108 
or  A.D.  1 1  5.-^  Polycarp's  epistle,  though  brief, 
contains  between  thirty  and  forty  decisive  coin- 
cidences with,  or  references  to,  passages  in  the 
New  Testament.     And  among  these  are  several 

1  ix;  yiypaitrai.     See    Donaldson's    T/ie  Afostolical  Fathers,  p. 

306. 

2  See  Lightfoot's  The  Apostolic  Fathers,  P^ri  1 1.,  vol.  i.,pp.  433- 
722  ;  vol.  \i.,  §  11.,  pp.  31 1-^06. 

3  Lightfoot,  The  Afostolic  Fathers,  P:irt  II.,  vol.  i..  p.  30;  Canon 
R.  Travers  Smith,  Dictionary  of  Christian  Bio^ra/'hy,yol  iii.,  p.  220. 


138     INTRODUCTION   TO    THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS. 

unmistakable  quotations  from  the  Gospels ;  for 
example,  in  chap,  ii.,  near  the  end,  are  these 
words,  "  remembering  what  the  Lord  has  taught 
us,  saying,  'Judge  not,  and  ye  shall  not  be 
judged ;  forgive,  and  ye  shall  be  forgiven.  Be 
ye  merciful  and  ye  shall  obtain  mercy :  ^  for 
with  the  same  measure  that  ye  mete  withal, 
it  shall  be  measured  to  you  again.'  And  again, 
'  Blessed  are  the  poor,  and  they  that  are  perse- 
cuted for  righteousness'  sake  ;  for  theirs  is  the 
kingdom  of  God.'  "  ^ 

Polycarp  is,  however,  a  much  more  important 
witness  than  merely  what  he  cites  in  his  epis- 
tle would  indicate.  The  late  Bishop  Lightfoot 
said,^  Polycarp  "  is  the  most  important  person 
in  the  history  of  the  Christian  church  during 
the  ages  immediately  succeeding  the  apostles." 
This  characterization  is  owing  to  the  peculiar 
relation  in  which  Polycarp  stood  to  those  who 
went  before  him  and  to  those  who  followed 
after ;  for  he  was  the  teacher  of  Irenaeus,  and, 
according  to  Irenaeus,  was  himself  the  pupil  of 
St.  John.  Bishop  Westcott  says,*  "  In  one  re- 
spect the  testimony  of  Polycarp  is  more  impor- 
tant  than   that   of  any  other  of   the   apostolic 

1  Cf.  Matt.  vii.  i ;  Luke  vi.  T,7y  38. 

2  Cf.  Matt.  V.  3,  10 ;  Luke  vi.  20. 

3  Essays  in  Reply  to  Superiiatural  Religion,  p.  89. 
^  On  the  Cation,  p.  40. 


GOSPELS;    TIME   OF    THEIR    COMPOSITION.      139 

Fathers.  Like  his  master,  he  lived  to  unite 
two  ages.  lie  had  listened  to  St.  John,  and 
he  became  himself  the  teacher  of  Irenasus." 

Eusebius  preserves  '  a  portion  of  a  lost  trea- 
tise by  Irenaeus  written  to  an  old  schoolmate, 
Florinus,  who  seems  to  Irenaeus  heretical  be- 
cause regarding  God  as  the  author  of  evil. 
Irenaeus  reminds  Florinus  of  their  early  in- 
struction, which  was  contrary  to  the  teachings 
now  promulgated.  "  While  I  was  yet  a  hoy," 
he  says,  "  I  saw  thee  in  Lower  Asia  with  I'oly- 
carp,  distinguishing  thyself  in  the  royal  court, 
and  endeavoring  to  gain  his  approbation.  For 
I  have  a  more  vivid  recollection  of  what  oc- 
curred at  that  time  than  of  recent  events  (inas- 
much as  the  experiences  of  childhood,  keeping 
pace  with  the  growth  of  the  soul,  become  incor- 
porated with  it)  ;  so  that  I  can  even  describe 
the  place  where  the  blessed  Polycarp  used  to 
sit  and  discourse  —  his  going  out,  too,  and  his 
coming  in  ;  his  general  mode  of  life  and  per- 
sonal appearance,  together  with  the  discourses 
which  he  delivered  to  the  people  ;  also  how  he 
would  speak  of  his  familiar  intercourse  with 
John,  and  with  the  rest  of  those  who  had 
seen  the  Lord ;  and  how  he  would  call  their 
words    to    remembrance.       Whatsoever    things 

1  Church  History,  Bk.  V.,  chap.  xx. 


140     INTRODUCTION   TO    THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS. 

he  had  heard  from  them  respecting  the  Lord, 
both  with  regard  to  his  miracles  and  his  teach- 
ing, Polycarp  having  thus  received  (informa- 
tion) from  the  eye-witnesses  of  the  Word  of 
Life,  would  recount  them  all  in  harmony  with 
the  Scriptures."  Irenaeus  further  says  of  him,^ 
"  But  Polycarp  also  was  not  only  instructed  by 
apostles,  and  conversed  with  many  who  had 
seen  Christ,  but  was  also,  by  apostles  in  Asia, 
appointed  bishop  of  the  church  in  Smyrna, 
whom  I  also  saw  in  my  early  youth,  for  he 
tarried  (on  earth)  a  very  long  time,  and  when 
a  very  old  man,  gloriously  and  most  nobly 
suffered  martyrdom,  departed  this  life,  having 
always  taught  the  things  which  he  had  learned 
from  the  apostles,  and  which  the  church  has 
handed  down,  and  which  alone  are  true." 

This  line  of  personal  discipleship  is  very 
important  and  very  conclusive.  The  Irenaeus 
who  remembers  so  distinctly  the  sayings  of  his 
master  Polycarp,  and  his  sayings  concerning  his 
master  John,  is  the  Irenaeus  who  employs  the 
four  Gospels  which  we  employ,  and  cites  them 
as  long  existing  and  established  for  the  church.^ 
Especially  significant  is  his  testimony  to  the 
Fourth  Gospel,  for  it  is  well-nigh  inconceivable 

1  Against  Heresies,  Bk.  Ill,,  chap,  iii.,  §  4. 

2  See  above,  p.  128. 


GOSPELS;    TIME   OE    THEIR   LOMPOSTTION.     141 

that  Irenacus  coukl  have  given  credence  \o 
the  Fourth  Gospel  as  the  work  (jf  the  apostle 
John,  if  he  had  not  known  conclusively  from 
Polycarp  that  the  Gospel  beyond  question  had 
come  from  John.  In  an  important  de^^ree  the 
testimony  of  Irena:us  must  be  regarded  as 
sanctioned  and   indorsed  by    I'olycarp. 

In  a  life  of  iVjlycarp,  written  ccjnsiderably 
after  his  time,^  occurs  the  statement,  put  upon 
his  lips,  when  asked  to  recant  his  Christian 
profession  :  -  "  lughty  and  six  years  have  I 
served  him,  and  he  never  did  me  injury  :  how 
then  can  I  blaspheme  my  King  and  my  Sa- 
viour? "  This  was  spoken  at  the  time  of  his 
martyrdom,  which  took  place  in  a.d.  155.  If 
by  eighty-six  years  of  service  he  means  his 
whole  lifetime,  it  would  carry  his  birth  back 
to  A.D.  69,  and  make  him  about  thirty  years 
old  when  the  apostle  John  died,  for  Irenx-us 
says  ^  John  was  living  in  I'^phesus  when  Trajan 
came  to  the  throne,  which  was  in  a.d.  98.  If, 
however,  Polycarp  means  that  eighty-six  years 
had  elapsed  since  the  time  of  his  conversion,  it 
would  make  him  a  very  old  man,  to  be  sure,  — 

1  It  has  been  dated  in  the  second  li.iK  of  the  second  century,  but 
undoubtedly  belongs  to  a  later  period.  Kusebius  (Church  History, 
Bk.  IV.,  chap,  .xv)  quotes  it  extensively. 

2  The  Martyrdom  of  Polycurf,  chap.  ix. 

8  Against  Heresies,  Bk.  III.,  chap,  iii.,  §  4. 


142      INTRODUCTION    TO    THE   LIFE   OF  JESUS. 

yet  not  impossibly  or  unreasonably  aged,  as- 
suming his  conversion  to  have  taken  place  at 
from  twelve  to  twenty  years  of  age.  Then  he 
might  have  died  at  the  age  of  one  hundred 
years,  or  more,  and  have  been  nearly  fifty  years 
old  when  John  died. 

In  whatever  way  this  last  reference  to  Poly- 
carp  is  understood,  whether  it  is  received  as 
genuine  or  not,  we  can  nevertheless  see  that 
the  position  of  Polycarp  is  most  important, 
and  the  testimony  of  Irenaeus,  reaching  back 
through  Polycarp,  is  one  of  our  most  direct 
and  conclusive  pieces  of  testimony  out  of  the 
apostolic  period. 

Over  the  name  and  reputed  writings  of  Ig- 
natius a  great  critical  battle  has  been  waging 
since  1495.  Fifteen  epistles  then  were  known 
associated  with  the  name  of  Ignatius.  In  a 
short  time  three,  at  least,  of  these  were  dis- 
covered to  be  spurious,  leaving  twelve  still  ac- 
credited to  Ignatius.  About  a  century  and  a 
half  later,  however  (1644),  new  manuscripts 
were  brought  to  light,  which  contained  but 
seven  epistles,  and  these  in  briefer  form  than 
the  corresponding  epistles  already  known.  Now 
the  battle,  which  had  raged  about  the  simple 
question,  Are  the  twelve  epistles  genuine,  or 
are  they  not  ?  waxed  hotter  and  more  uncertain 


GOSPRIS;    TIME   OF   THEIR   COMPOSITION.     11  :i 

over  the  perplexities  of  determining^  wiiicii  were 
the  earlier  of  the  rival  forms,  and  whether  any 
of    them  were  genuine.     Gradually  the  smoke 
was  lifting,  and  decision  was  settling  upon  the 
shorter  forms  as  genuine,  when  in   1845,  after 
two  full   centuries,  Syriac  manuscripts  of  three 
of  these  epistles,  in  still  briefer  form,  were  dis- 
covered in  the  JJritish  Museum  ;  and  the  whole 
question  was  reope^ed,  with  the  added  compli- 
cation of    determining  what    the    short   Syriac 
epistles    represented.      Keen   minds   have  been 
busied  with  the  problem.      Lipsius,  a  German, 
and   Lightfoot,    an   Englishman,   both  of  whom 
at  first  pronounced  for  the  genuineness  of  the 
shortest  form,  of  which  the  Syriac  epistles  were 
translations,   have  during  their  further  investi- 
gations changed  their   minds,   and  declared,  as 
their  ripest  judgment,   that  the  shorter  of  the 
Greek  forms,   seven   in  number,   were  the  gen- 
uine epistles  of   Ignatius.^ 

While  as  yet  there  is  no  absolute  unanimity 
upon  the  subject,  yet  critical  opinion  gravitates 
to  the  decision  of  Lightfoot  and  Lipsius.  I 
accept  the  seven  short  epistles  as  genuine, 
and  consult  them  as  witnes.ses  for  the  exist- 
ence   of    the    New   Testament    in   the  time   of 

•  The  work  of  Ilisliop  I.i^htfoot  I  commend  as  one  of  tlio  1-^st 
specimens  of  p.-\tient,  e.xhaustive  study  with  whicli  I  am  acquainted. 


144      INTRODUCTION    TO   THE  LIFE   OF  JESUS. 

Ignatius.  Six  of  the  seven  are  written  to 
churches  (at  Magnesia,  Tralles,  Philadelphia, 
Ephesus,  Smyrna,  and  Rome),  and  one  to  an 
individual,  Polycarp.  They  were  penned  as 
Bishop  Ignatius  was  on  his  way  from  Antioch, 
his  own  diocese,  unto  Rome  to  suffer  martyr- 
dom. He  is  in  the  custody  of  ten  Roman  sol- 
diers, whom  he  terms  "  ten  leopards."  '  His 
letters  are  what  we  might  expect  under  such  cir- 
cumstances, brief,  direct,  full  of  fatherly  council 
for  churches  which  he  will  see  no  more.  The 
one  to  Rome  is  a  glowing  appeal  to  be  allowed 
without  interposition  to  suffer  the  martyrdom 
to  which  he  is  going.  None  are  treatises,  or 
essays,  in  defence  either  of  Christianity  or  of 
the  Gospels.  We  should  not,  under  such  cir- 
cumstances, at  that  early  day,  expect  frequent, 
if  indeed  any,  use  of  the  New  Testament  lan- 
ffua^e  or  reference  to  the  New  Testament 
books.  And  yet  sufficient  testimony  to  our 
Gospels  is  not  wanting  to  make  us  certain  that 
Ignatius  was  acquainted  with  at  least  the  sub- 
stance of  the  narrative  which  we  possess.  Be- 
sides numerous  likenesses  and  allusions  to  the 
Gospels  in  all  his  epistles,  in  one  ^  he  says : 
"  But  your  prayer  to  God  shall  make  me  per- 

1  To  the  Romans,  chap.  v. 

2  To  the  Philadelphians,  chap.  v. 


GOSPELS;    TIME   OF    THEIR    COMPOSITION.     145 

feet,  that  I  may  attain  to  that  portion  which 
through  mercy  has  been  allotted  to  me,  while 
I  flee  to  the  Gospel  as  to  the  flesh  of  Jesus, 
and  to  the  ai)ostles  as  to  the  presbytery  of  the 
church.  And  let  us  also  love  the  prophets,  be- 
cause they,  too,  have  proclaimed  the  Gospel,  and 
placed  their  hope  in  Him,  and  waited  for  Him." 
While  this  language  does  not  distinctly  indi- 
cate a  written  Gospel,  yet  the  use  of  "apos- 
tles "  and  "prophets"  in  close  connection  would 
certainly  imply  that  as  the  prophets  were,  viz., 
written,  so  also  the  apostles  and  Gospels  were. 

But  perhaps  the  strongest  proof  that  Igna- 
tius both  knew  and  used  our  Gospels  is  to  be 
found  in  his  closeness  of  expression  to  them  in 
so  many  places.  Even  a  careless  reading  of  the 
epistles  will  disclose  these  similarities.  They 
are  so  numerous  as  to  be  more  than  coinci- 
dences. A  coincidence  may  happen  once,  or 
even  twice,  but  it  cannot  repeat  itself  without 
indicating  more  than  chance. 

I  must  mention  The  Tcacliiug  of  the  Tzvelve 
Apostles  next.  This  document,  hidden  in  a 
volume  of  ancient  writings  in  the  library  of 
the  Jerusalem  Monastery  in  Constantinople, 
was  discovered  by  Philotheos  Bryennios  in 
1873  ;  but,  busied  with  the  other  documents  in 
the    volume,    Bryennios   did    not    recognize   the 


146      INTRODUCTION    TO    THE   LIFE   OF  JESUS. 

importance  of  the  one  entitled  AtSax'^  twv  ScuScKa 
anodToXuiv  Until  1 878.  Then  he  worked  assidu- 
ously upon  the  text  and  its  criticism,  and  pub- 
lished it  to  the  world  in  December,  1883.  In 
the  short  time  since,  it  has  received  marked 
attention. 

It  is  undoubtedly  of  early  date,  although 
scholars  cannot  agree  upon  the  precise  date  to 
assign  to  it.  They  vary  between  a.  d.  50  and 
A.  D.  190.  But  the  majority  hold  to  about  A.  d. 
100.  This  document  has  several  passages 
closely  resembling  our  Gospels.  Two  ways 
are  described  :  ^  "  Now  the  way  of  Life  is  this  : 
First,  thou  shalt  love  God  who  made  thee ; 
secondly,  thy  neighbor  as  thyself  ;  ^  and  all 
things  whatsoever  thou  wouldst  not  have  done 
to  thee,  neither  do  thou  to  another.^  Now,  the 
teaching;  of  these  words  is  this  :  Bless  those 
who  curse  you,*  and  pray  for  your  enemies,  and 
fast  for  those  who  persecute  you ;  for  what 
thank  is  there  if  ye  love  those  who  love  you.'* 
Do  not  even  the  Gentiles  the  same  .''  ^  But  love 
ye  those  who  hate  you,  and  ye  shall  not  have 
an  enemy.  Abstain  from  fleshly  and  bodily 
lusts.      If  any  one  give  thee  a  blow  on  the  right 

1  Chap,  i.,  §§  2,  3,  4.  2  Cf.  Matt.  xxii.  37,  39. 

3  Ibid.,  vii.  12  ;  Luke  vi.  31.      ■*  Ibid.,  v.  48  ;  Luke  vi.  27,  28. 
5  Ibid.,  V.  46;  Luke  vi.  32. 


GOSPELS;    TIME   OF   THEIR   COMPOSITION.     1  17 

cheek,  turn  to  him  the  other  also,'  and  thou 
shalt  be  perfect.^  If  any  one  press  thee  to  go 
with  him  one  mile,  go  with  him  two;^  if  any 
one  take  away  thy  cloak,  give  him  also  thy 
tunic ;  if  any  one  take  from  thee  what  is  thine, 
ask  it  not  back,  as  indeed  thou  canst  not."  .  .  . 
"  Neither  pray  ye  as  the  hypocrites,  but  as 
the  Lord  commanded  in  his  Gospel,  so  pray  ye : 
Our*  Father,  who  art  in  heaven,  hallowed  be 
thy  name.  Thy  kingdom  come.  Thy  will  be 
done,  as  in  heaven,  so  on  earth.  Give  us  this 
day  our  daily  bread.  And  f(;rgive  us  our  debt 
as  we  also  forgive  our  debtors.  And  bring  us 
not  into  temptation,  but  deliver  us  from  the 
evil.  For  thine  is  the  power  and  the  glory 
forever."^  While  this  document,  then,  makes 
no  citation  by  name  from  the  Gospels,  yet  these 
verbal  likenesses  are  so  close  as  certainly  to 
indicate  acquaintance  with  some  written  source. 
One  more  document  remains  for  us  to  ex- 
amine. It  is  The  Epistle  of  Clement,  bishop 
of  Rome,  written  to  the  Christian  church  at 
Corinth,  an  epistle  clearly  authenticated  as 
o-enuine.  The  date  of  its  composition  is  well 
established   as   following   closely  the    Domitian 

1  Cf.  Matt.  V.  39;  I-uke  vi.  29.  a  Ibid.,  v.  48;  xi.x.  21. 

8  Ibid.,^.\\.  *  lbid.,s\.^\l. 

6  Chap,  viii.,  §  z. 


148     INTRODUCTION   TO    THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS. 

persecution,  which  took  place  in  a.  d.  96.  Its 
testimony  comes  to  us,  therefore,  from  the  first 
century,  a  year  or  two  perhaps  before  the 
Fourth  Gospel  was  written.  We  cannot  ex- 
pect this  document,  at  that  early  time,  written 
as  a  mere  letter  of  advice  and  exhortation  to 
the  Corinthians,  who  had  appealed  to  the  Chris- 
tians at  Rome  for  counsel  in  the  time  of  a 
trouble  over  an  unruly  member,  to  give  clear 
and  unmistakable  evidence  to  the  existence  and 
use  of  the  New  Testament  writings.  At  this 
time,  when  companions  of  the  apostles  and 
even  an  apostle  himself  is  alive,  we  cannot 
hope  to  find  references  to  written  documents. 
The  preferences  for  oral  testimony,  expressed 
by  Papias,  we  can  expect  to  be  still  stronger 
at  this  period.  And  yet  the  following  words 
are  found  in  Clement :  ^  "  Above  all,  remem- 
bering the  words  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  which  he 
spake  concerning  equity  and  long-suffering,  say- 
ing. Be  ye  merciful,  and  ye  shall  'obtain  mercy  ; 
forgive  and  ye  shall  be  forgiven ;  as  ye  do,  so 
shall  it  be  done  unto  you ;  as  ye  give,  so  shall 
it  be  given  unto  you  ;  as  ye  judge,  so  shall  ye 
be  judged;  as  ye  are  kind  to  others,  so  shall 
God  be  kind  to  you  ;  with  what  measure  ye 
mete,  with  the  same  shall   it   be  measured  to 

1  Chap.  xiii. 


GOSPELS;    TIME   OF   THEIR   COMPOSITION.     149 

you  again.  By  this  command,  and  by  these 
rules,  let  us  establish  ourselves,  that  so  we  may 
always  walk  obediently  to  his  holy  words,  being 
humble-minded." 

These  are  not  the  exact  words  of  Scripture, 
and  yet  so  nearly  resemble  Luke  vi.  36,  37 ; 
Matt.  V.  7,  vi.  14,  vii.  2,  12,  Mark;  iv.  24, 
xi.  25  ;  and  Luke  vi.  31,  38,  as  to  convince  us 
that,  if  not  taken  from  the  Gospels  as  a  written 
source,  they  yet  must  have  been  derived  from 
an  oral  gospel  spoken  by  men  before  the  writ- 
ten Gospels  took  form.  Another  passage  of 
the  same  character  occurs  :  ^  "  Remember  the 
words  of  our  Lord  Jesus,  how  he  said,  Woe  to 
that  man  !  It  were  better  for  him  that  he  had 
never  been  born,  than  that  he  should  have 
offended  one  of  my  elect.  It  were  better  for 
him  that  a  millstone  should  be  tied  about  his 
neck,  and  he  should  be  cast  into  the  sea,  than 
that  he  should  offend  one  of  my  little  ones." 
This  is  very  like  Matt,  xviii.  6  (Mark  ix.  42  ; 
Luke  xvii.  i,  2),  combined  with  Matt.  xxvi.  24 
(Mark  xiv.  21  ;  Luke  xxii.  22),  and  certifies,  like 
the  previously  mentioned  passage,  to  the  con- 
tents of  our  Gospels,  if  not  to  the  Gospels 
themselves. 

In  giving  this  running  review  of  the  external 

1  In  chap.  xlvi. 


150     INTRODUCTION    TO   THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS. 

evidence  for  the  authenticity  of  our  Gospels, 
through  a  line  of  witnesses  from  Jerome  back 
to  Clement  of  Rome,  I  have  by  no  means  ex- 
hausted the  list  of  witnesses  who  might  be 
summoned  to  the  stand.  I  have  said  nothing 
about  Theophilus  of  Antioch,  or  Dionysius  of 
Corinth,  or  Athenagoras  of  Athens,  or  Melito 
of  Sardis  ;  nothing  concerning  the  testimony 
of  the  heretical  writers  Basilides,  Valentinus, 
Menander,  and  Cerinthus,  —  yet  all  these  used 
our  Gospels  ;  nothing  about  the  early  versions, 
the  Peshitto,  belonging  to  the  latter  half  of 
the  second  century,  and  the  Old  Latin,  used  by 
Tertullian,  and  hence  earlier  than  a.d.  170, — 
yet  these  contain  our  Gospels.  But  I  have 
given  the  most  important  witnesses,  and  the 
evidence  is  sufficient  for  proof  before  any  can- 
did court.  Did  Jesus  Christ  live  ^  Yes,  and 
lived  doubtless  in  all  essential  characteristics  as 
the  four  Gospels  of  the  New  Testament  relate, 
for  they  have- all  the  vindication  needful  as  first 
century  documents. 

We  have  consequently  reached  a  conclusion 
which  the  apostles  John  and  Luke  emphasized, 
the  importance  of  eye-  and  ear-witnesses.  John 
says,  "  The  Word  became  flesh,  and  dwelt  among 
us,  and  we  beheld  his  glory"  (i.  14),  and  re- 
peats   in    his    epistle    even    more    specifically, 


GOSPELS;    TIME   OF   THEIR   COMPOSITION.     151 

"  That  which  was  from  the  beginning,  that 
which  we  have  heard,  that  which  we  have  seen 
with  our  eyes,  that  which  we  beheld,  and  our 
hands  handled,  concerning  the  Word  of  life  (and 
the  life  was  manifested,  and  we  have  seen,  and 
bear  witness,  and  declare  unto  you  the  life,  the 
eternal  life,  which  was  with  the  Father  and  was 
manifested  unto  us)"  (i  John  i.  i,  2).  Luke 
is  careful  to  state  that  he  relies  upon  those 
who  were  "  eye-witnesses  and  ministers  of  the 
word  "  from  the  beginning.  Obviously,  there- 
fore, we  can  use  the  four  Gospels  as  historical 
witnesses,  trustworthy  because  vindicated  by  an 
historical  inquiry.  They  were  written  at  a 
time,  and  by  men,  close  to  the  events  described. 


CHAPTER    XIV. 

THE    CHRISTIAN    SOURCES.  THE    SYNOPTIC 

PROBLEM. 

Before  examining  in  detail  the  contents  of 
the  Gospels,  we  must  consider  their  mutual 
relations.  The  first  three  resemble  each  other 
very  closely  in  many  particulars.  The  fourth 
is  distinct.  The  first  three  agree  largely  in  the 
matter  narrated,  in  the  order  of  narration,  and 
even  in  the  language  employed.  Because  of 
this  agreement,  the  three  Gospels  have  been 
called,  since  the  time  of  Griesbach  (who  first 
used  the  term  in  his  critical  edition  of  the  New 
Testament,  1774- 177 5),  "the  Synoptical  Gos- 
pels," or  "the  Synoptics."^ 

Of  the  Synoptic  Problem,  Professor  Sanday 
says,  2  "  I  doubt  if  in  the  whole  range  of  litera- 
ture there  is  another  question  which  involves 
data  so  complicated,  so  minute,  and  to  all  ap- 
pearances so  inexplicable."     The  problem,  may 

1  (Tvv  —  oTTTiKO!,  froiti  01//1!,  oiffo^ai ;  to  see  together,  i.e.,  a  common 
view. 

2  TAe  Exposttor^  4th  series,  vol.  iii.,  p.  88. 

152 


THE  SYNOPTIC  PROBLEM.  153 

be  discovered  in  the  following  table,  given  by 
Bishop  Westcott  : '  — 

If  the  contents  of  each  Gospel  be  represented 
by  I  oo,  — 

Mark  will  have  7  peculiarities  and  93  coinci- 
dences ; 

Matthew  will  have  42  peculiarities  and  58 
coincidences  ; 

Luke  will  have  59  peculiarities  and  41  coin- 
cidences. 

From  this  table  it  will  be  seen  that  Mark  has 
very  little  that  is  peculiar  to  itself,  but  ninety- 
three  per  cent  of  its  matter  is  reproduced  either 
in  Matthew  or  Luke,  while  these  latter  Gospels 
have  nearly  half  of  their  contents  in  each  case 
peculiar,  and  a  half  repeated  in  the  two  others. 
The  coincidences  are  striking.  They  extend 
even  to  identity  of  language,  in  some  cases 
seeming  trivial. 

These  likenesses  are  interrupted  by  dissimi- 
larities, by  changed  order,  by  omissions,  and 
by  insertions,  oftentimes,  too,  seeming  trivial. 
Verbal  agreements  are  most  common  in  the 
reputed  sayings  of  others,  especially  the  say- 
ings of  Jesus. 

It  has  always  been  a  problem  to  account 
for   these   resemblances   and    differences.     Au- 

1  Introductioft  to  the  Study  of  the  Gospels,  p.  201. 


154     INTRODUCTION   TO    THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS. 

gustine  (born  a.d.  354,  died  a.d.  430)  offered 
the  first  solution.'  He  called  Mark  the  abbre- 
viator  of  Matthew.  This  view,  with  the  addi- 
tion that  Luke  made  use  of  both  Matthew  and 
Mark,  was  the  only  explanation  presented  until 
1785.  In  that  year  Lessing  suggested  that 
instead  of  using  each  other,  they  had  all  had 
recourse  to  some  previously  existing  document. 
This  view  received  many  modifications.  Eich- 
horn  required  five  original  documents  to  account 
for  the  peculiarities.  Bishop  Marsh  deemed  eight 
necessary  ;  and  even  ten  have  been  supposed. 

Neither  of  these  first  theories  is  free  from 
serious,  if  not  fatal,  objections.  The  theory 
of  dependence,  applied  in  any  one  of  its  sbc 
possible  forms,  all  of  which  have  found  sup- 
porters,^  still  fails  to  account  for  the  arbitrari- 
ness of  the  later  writers  in  dealing  with  the 
products  of  their  predecessors.  The  original- 
document  theory  is  also  unsatisfactory,  because 
devoid  of  proof.  It  is  an  hypothesis  without 
support.  A  supposition,  seeming  to  have  place 
in  some  minds,  that  nothing  could  appear  in 
our  Gospels  save  what  had  already  been  writ- 
ten, would  oblige  us  to  suppose  original  docu- 

1  In  his  De  Consensu  Evangelistarum,  Bk.  I.,  chap,  ii.,  §  4.  See 
The  Nicene  and  Post-Nicene  Fathers.,  vol.  vi.,  p.  7S. 

2  See  Dods's  Introduction  to  the  New  Testament,  p.  9, 


THE  SYNOPTIC  PROlU.nM.  1  "» ') 

ments   for   the  original  documents,  and   so  to 
run  back  indefinitely  and  absurdly.^ 

A  third  theory  has  been  propounded.  Dishop 
Westcott  is  its  chief  English  exponent.  Gie- 
seler,  in  1818,  was  its  originator.  This  is  the 
oral -gospel  theory.  It  is  that  the  oral  form 
of  preaching  which  the  apostles  adopted  in 
their  ministry  took  such  fixed  and  definite 
shape  as  to  be  reproduced  on  manuscript 
when  the  apostles,  or  their  associates,  came 
to  write.^  This  has  weighty  considerations  in 
its  favor,  especially  when  combined  with  a 
modified  form  of  one  of  the  other  views  ;  for 
the  Acts  already  show  a  definite  form  of  nar- 
rative, especially  as  respecting  Christ's  passion 
and  resurrection,  taking  shape  on  the  lips  of 
the  apostles  ;  and  when  men  "  preached  Jesus," 
it  is  probable  that  they  told  the  .same  chief  say- 
ings and  deeds  of  his  life  with  which  they  had 
become  familiar  in  their  mutual  conferences 
and  conversations  while  tarrying  at  Jerusalem. 
This  would  be  perfectly  natural  to  expect. 

1  Rushbrooke  and  Abbott,  in  The  Common  Tradition  of  the  Sy- 
noptic Gospels,  find  tlie  original  document  in  all  that  is  common  to 
tiie  three  Gospels.  This  they  call  "the  triple  tradition."  See  also 
Abbott,  Encyc.  Brit.,  "Gospels,"  vol.  x.,  pp.  7S9-S13. 

2  G.  Wetzel  in  1SS3  set  forth  the  view  that  Matthew  delivered 
lectures  upon  the  life  of  Jesus;  his  hearers  took  notes, on  which  M.it- 
thew  catechized  and  corrected  them,  and  so  a  common  tyf>e  of  Gospel 
was  fixed.     See  Studia  Biblica,  voL  i.,  1SS5,  p.  87. 


156     INTRODUCTION    TO    THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS. 

These  primitive  sermons,  or  narratives,  con- 
cerning our  Lord,  would  naturally  have  been 
early  committed  to  writing,  as  Luke  in  his 
preface  implies.  Our  Gospels,  because  sur- 
viving, were  doubtless  the  more  complete  and 
doubtless  the  later  written  ;  and  hence  their 
writers  may  have  availed  themselves  both  of 
the  remembered  oral  tradition  and  also  of  the 
written  documents.  Luke's  preface  indicates 
that  he  was  acquainted  with  both,  but  relied 
preferably  upon  the  oral,  that  is,  upon  the  testi- 
mony of  eye-witnesses  and  ministers  of  the  word. 

The  Synoptic  problem  has  been  made  of 
late,  largely  in  Germany,  a  purely  literary  prob- 
lem ;  but  it  is  as  well,  and  indeed  chiefly,  an 
historical  problem.  By  this  I  mean  that  the 
historic  evidence  in  regard  to  the  origin  of 
the  Gospels,  rather  than  the  present  literary 
features,  should  be  made  the  point  of  depar- 
ture for  an  investigation  of  the  difficulties. 
Since  we  accept  the  testimony  of  the  early 
Fathers  in  establishing  the  authenticity  of  the 
writings,  may  we  not  also  listen  to  what  they 
say  concerning  the  dates  and  the  manner  of 
composing  the  documents  }  It  is  certainly 
more  scientific  to  heed  the  testimony  of  those 
who  are  in  a  better  position  to  know  the  facts, 
even   if  we  do   not   know  the   precise  manner 


THE  SYNOPTIC   PROBLEM.  157 

in  which  they  acquired  their  knowledge,  than 
to  reason  upon  probabilities  when  we  ourselves 
are  ignorant.  The  subjective  convictions  of 
modern  scholarshiji  are  unquestionably  more 
reliable  than  the  mere  dogmatic  assertions  of 
men  of  the  second  and  third  centuries ;  but 
men  of  that  time  were  in  the  line  of  direct 
communications  from  the  past  centuries,  from 
which  students  of  to-day,  however  scholarly, 
are  cut  off ;  and  when  the  witnesses  of  the 
past  agree,  or  when  one  alone  states  what  is  in- 
trinsically possible,  such  evidence  surely  merits 
greater  credence  than  modern  conjectures,  how- 
ever brilliant.  We  have  reason  to  expect  that 
in  the  historical  evidence  we  shall  discover  the 
best  key  to  the  literary  puzzle. 

The  Gospel  of  Luke.  —  That  Luke  wrote 
both  the  Gospel  bearing  his  name  and  the  Book 
of  Acts  is  universally  agreed.'  They  are  ad- 
dressed to  a  certain  Theophilus ;  they  have 
marked  similarities  in  style  ;2  they  are  attested 

1  "  A  conclusion,"  says  Kenan,  "  which  has  never  been  seriously 
disputed,"  Lcs  Afotres,  p.  lo. 

2  I.  The  compound  verbs  in  Luke  and  Acts  are  in  the  s.ime  pro- 
portion, and  more  common  tlian  in  any  other  writings  of  the  New 
Testament.  2.  The  author  of  e.icii  has  a  fondness  for  avv  ;  it  occurs  in 
Matthew  three  times,  in  Mark  five  times,  in  John  three  times,  while  in 
Luke  twenty-four,  and  in  .-Xcts  fifty-one  times.  3.  In  Luke  and  .Acts 
a.ita<i  occurs  thirty-five  times,  and  it  occurs  only  nine  times  elsewhere 
in  the  entire  New  Testament.  4.  Trop«i>»<70ac  is  in  Luke  forty-nine 
times  and  in  Acts  thirty-eight  times,  while  it  is  rare  elsewhere  in  the 


158    INTRODUCTION   TO    THE  LIFE   OF  JESUS. 

in  antiquity  as  from  the  same  pen  by  Irenaeus,^ 
by  Clement  of  Alexandria,^  by  Tertullian,^  and 
by  Eusebius.*  The  Book  of  Acts  terminates  ab- 
ruptly with  Paul's  dwelling,  during  his  Roman 
confinement,  two  whole  years  in  a  hired  house. 
What  befell  Paul,  how  the  object  which  brought 
him  to  Rome  was  attained,  the  effects  of  his 
teachings  in  the  city,  —  themes  toward  which 
the  narrative  has  been  steadily  tending,  —  all 
these  are  suddenly  dropped  uncompleted.  No 
better  explanation  for  the  stopping  of  the  narra- 
tive at  this  point  has  ever  been  proposed  than 
that  at  this  time  there  was  nothing  more  to  write, 
—  that  is,  that  the  history  was  brought  down  to 
date,  that  the  author  intended  continuing,  but 
could  never  execute  his  plans.  This,  therefore, 
would  make  a.d.  6'^,^  or  soon  after,  the  date  of 

New  Testament.  5.  eiTrti;'  and  kaKtlv  with  wpos  are  almost  exclu- 
sively in  Luke  and  Acts  ;  the  former  occurs  only  in  John  a  few  times, 
and  the  latter  only  in  i  Cor.  xiv.  6;  Heb.  v.  5  ;  xi.  18.  6.  Luke  and 
Acts  have,  also,  in  common  these  peculiarities :  5e  KaX  .  .  .  Kal  avros 
(aiiToi)  ;  TO  before  interrogative  sentences ;  5e  omitted  after  iJ-ev  ovp ; 
and  'lepovcraAijn  preferred  to  'lepoo-dAu^a.  See  Hackett  on  Acts, 
p.  13  sq. 

1  Against  Heresies,  Bk.  III.,  chap,  xiv.,  §  i. 

2  Stromata,  Bk.  V. 

3  On  Fasting,  chap.  x.  ;  On  Proscription  0/  Heretics,  chap.  xxii. 
On  Baptism,  chap.  x. 

4  Church  History,  Bk.  II.,  chap,  xxii.,  §  6  ;  Bk.  III.,  chap,  iv.,  §  6, 

5  Professor  Sanday,  however,  in  The  Expositor,  February,  1S96 
p.  82,  says,  "  I  am  convinced  that  the  Acts  was  written  after  and  not 
before  a.u.  70  ; "  but  he  confesses  that  in  this  he  differs  from  Dr, 


THE  SYNOPTIC  PROBLEM.  IT)!) 

its  composition,  since  Paul  arrived  in  Rome  in 
A.D.  6i. 

By  Acts  i.  I  it  is  evident  that  tiie  Gospel 
preceded  the  history :  "  The  former  treatise 
have  I  made,  O  Theophilus,  of  all  that  Jesus 
began  both  to  do  and  to  teach."  The  Gospel 
may,  therefore,  have  been  written  as  late  as 
A.D.  62,,  immediately  before  the  Acts.  It  is 
known  that  Luke  was  at  Cncsarea  with  Paul 
probably  the  greater  part,  if  not  the  whole,  of 
Paul's  detention  there.*  In  these  years  it  would 
have  been  natural  for  Luke  to  have  gathered, 
in  conversation  with  Paul,  the  material  for  his 
Gospel,  consulting,  also,  the  documents  men- 
tioned in  his  preface.  The  Gospel  may,  there- 
fore, very  probably  have  been  written  in  the  year 
A.D.  59  or  A.D.  60,  the  years  of  the  Caesarean  im- 
prisonment. Between  a.d.  59  and  a.d.  63,  at  any 
rate,  its  composition  seems  obviously  to  fall. 

Blass,  author  of  a  recent  commentary  on  Acts.  He  bases  his  conclu- 
sion on  the  belief  that  Paul  was  dead  when  Luke  wrote.  Hut  I 
think,  with  many  others,  this  cannot  be  proved. 

1  He  went  up  to  Jerusalem  when  Paul  was  arrested,  as  the  "  we  " 
in  Acts  xxi.  15-17  shows;  and,  although  it  is  not  mentioned  that  he 
accompanied  Paul  into  his  imprisonment  at  Cisarea  (.Acts  xxiii.  23, 
33),  or  was  with  Paul  at  C.Tsarea  during  the  two  years  of  the  impris- 
onment (xxiv.  27),  yet  since  he  includes  liimself  with  Paul  on  leaving 
Cssarea  for  Rome  (xxvii.  i  sq.,  "we"),  it  is  strongly  probable  that 
he  was  one  who  enjoyed  the  comparative  liberty  of  Paul  at  Ca'sarea 
(xxiv.  23).  See  Westcott's  Itttroduction,  pp.  195-198;  Smith's 
Bible  Dictionary,  "  Luke,  Gospel  of,"  Div.  IL,  p.  1696. 


160     INTRODUCTION   TO    THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS. 

Ancient  opinion  tends  strongly  to  establish 
this  close  connection  between  the  apostle  Paul 
and  the  Gospel  of  Luke.  Irenaeus  says,^  "  Luke 
also,  the  companion  of  Paul,  recorded  in  a  book 
the  Gospel  preached  by  him."  This  last  pro- 
noun seems  to  refer  to  Paul.  Tertullian  states  :^ 
"  For  even  Luke's  form  of  the  Gospel  men  usu- 
ally ascribe  to  Paul;"  and  in  another  place  :^ 
"Luke,  however,  was  not  an  apostle,  but  only 
an  apostolic  man  ;  not  a  master,  but  a  disciple, 
and  so  inferior  to  a  master  —  at  least  as  far 
subsequent  to  him  as  the  apostle  whom  he 
followed  (and  that  no  doubt  was  Paul)  was 
subsequent  to  the  others."  Origen,  as  quoted 
by  Eusebius,*  calls  it  "the  Gospel  praised  by 
Paul."  Eusebius  himself^  explains  Paul's  refer- 
ence to  "  my  gospel,"  mentioned  in  2  Tim.  ii.  8, 
as  meaning  the  Gospel  of  Luke.^  This  tradi- 
tion of  connection  with  Paul  may  not  mean 
quite  as  much  as  the  Fathers  state ;  for  Luke's 

1  Against  Heresies,  Bk.  III.,  chap,  i.,  §  I. 

2  Against  Marcion,  Bk.  IV.,  chap.  v. 

3  Ibid.,  Bk.  IV.,  chap.  ii. 

*  Church  History,  Bk.  VI.,  chap.  xxv. 

5  Ibid.,  Bk.  III.,  chap.  iv. 

6  But  doubtless  Eusebius  is  mistaken  in  this.  The  passage 
reads :  "  Remember  Jesus  Christ,  risen  from  the  dead,  of  the  seed  of 
David,  according  to  my  gosfiel ; "  and  Weiss  (Meyer's  Commentary 
in  loc.)  points  out  that  the  following  clause  precludes  this  from  re- 
ferring to  Luke:  '■' whereifi  {iv  «I)  I  suffer  hardship  unto  bonds,  as  a 
malefactor ;  but  the  word  of  God  is  not  bound." 


THE  SYNOPTIC   PROBLEM.  1^1 

preface  indicates  reliance  chiefly  upon  eye  and 
ear  witnesses,  which  Paul,  in  the  strictest  sense, 
was  not ;  and   yet   the   general   purport  of  the 
tradition  has  everything  in  its  favor.     The  ac- 
count of  the  institution  of  the  Lord's  bupper 
given  by  Paul  (i  Cor.  xi.  23-25)  agrees  verbally 
more  nearly  with  Luke's  account  (xxn.  19,  20) 
than   with  that   given  by   either  of    the  other 
evangelists.      A  less  obvious  parallel   between 
Luke  xxiv.  26,  27,  and   i   Cor.  xv.  3,  is  some- 
times cited.     Luke  is  plainly  Pauline  in  charac- 
ter •  in  the  doctrines  of  faith,  of  the  extension 
of  the  gospel  to  the  Gentiles,  of  the  gift  of  the 
Holy    Spirit;    in    emphasizing    the    dangers    of 
riches    and    the   blessings    of    poverty,   and    m 
the  general  prominence  given  to  prayer,  Luke 

is  like  Paul.i 

Those  who  reject  this  early  date  for  the 
Gospel  of  Luke,  cite  but  one  objection.  They 
think  the  prophecy  upon  the  lips  of  Jesus,  con- 
cerning the  overthrow  of  Jerusalem  (xix.  43. 
44;  xxi.  24),  must  have  been  written  by  Luke 
after  the  event,  rather  than  before,  so  detailed 
is  it  and  that  therefore  the  Gospel  was  com- 
posed   about    A.D.    80.2      But    such    a   view    is 

1  See  Weiss,  /./.  ./  a.risf,  vol.  i..  p.  87 ;  ff'^n<M  of  InUoJuc 
Hon  to  the  New  Testament,  voli..,  p.  307- 

2  Weiss,  IntrodHcfwu,  vol.  i...  p.  3' 3  i  ^'f'  ^f  <-'"'"'>  '  ^ 
Abbott,  Encye.  Brit.,  "Gospels,"  vol.  x.,  p.  S13. 


162     INTRODUCTION   TO    THE  LIFE   OF  JESUS. 

purely  arbitrary.  It  is  not  an  argument ;  it 
is  merely  an  opinion.  If  one's  understanding 
of  the  predictive  element  in  the  utterances  of 
Jesus  does  not  allow  such  explicitness  of  detail, 
then,  in  view  of  the  historic  evidence  already 
adduced,  the  line  of  lesser  resistance  for  expla- 
nation is  that  passages  such  as  this  are  a  late 
interpolation.  But  all  such  opinions  verge  per- 
ilously near  mere  subjective  whims.  They  are 
almost  as  incapable  of  denial  as  they  are  devoid 
of  proof.  Apart  from  this  arbitrary,  dogmatic 
bias,  there  is  no  good  reason  for  rejecting  either 
the  statements  of  the  early  Fathers  or  the  pal- 
pable inferences  from  the  literary  connection  of 
the  third  Gospel  and  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles. 
The  Gospel  of  Matthew.  —  Papias,  as 
quoted  by  Eusebius,^  says,  "  Matthew  put  to- 
gether the  oracles  (Xoyta)  in  the  Hebrew  lan- 
guage, and  each  one  interpreted  them  as  best 
he  could."  And  yet  the  Fathers,  in  their  use 
of  Matthew,  while  recognizing  that  the  Gos- 
pel was  written  in  Hebrew,^  nevertheless  use 
our   present  Greek    Matthew   without   any  ex- 

1  Church  History,  Bk.  III.,  chap,  xxxix. 

2  IrensEUS,  Against  Heresies,  Bk.  HI.,  chap,  i.,  §  i  ;  Eusabius  cit- 
ing Pantaenus,  Church  History,  Bk.  V.,  chap.  x. ;  Origen,  cited  by 
Eusebius,  Church  History,  Bk.  VI.,  chap.  xxv. ;  Eusebius  himself, 
Church  History,  Bk.  HI.,  chap.  xxiv. ;  Epiphanius,  Heresies,  Bk. 
LI.,  chap,  ii.,  §  i ;  Jerome,  De  Viris  Ilhtstribus,  chap.  v. 


THF.    SYNOPTIC   PRORI.PM  \CA 

planation  of  how  the  Hebrew  became  Greek. 
Hence  Professor  Weiss  infers  that  the  (jreek 
Matthew  must  have  been  early,  and  must  have 
been  true  to  the  Hebrew  predecessor.'  Profes- 
sor Weiss  is  one  to  maintain,  however,  that  the 
Xo'yta  must  have  been  an  original  document, 
indeed  the  oldest  source  of  which  we  have 
knowledge,  and  must  have  contained  an  account 
chiefly  of  Christ's  sayings,  with  but  slight  nar- 
rative portions  ;  that  from  this  source  all  our 
evangelists  have  drawn,  and  that  the  jjresent 
Greek  Gospel  of  Matthew,  based  chiefly  upon 
this  Hebrew  document,  was  yet  not  written  by 
Matthew  himself,  but  by  some  unknown  author 
in  about  the  year  a.d.  yo? 

Our  Greek  Matthew  has  the  characteristics 
of  an  original  composition  and  not  a  transla- 
tion from  the  Hebrew.-'^  i.  Its  Old  Testa- 
ment quotations  in  the  narrative  portion  are 
taken,  not  from  the  Hebrew  original,  but  from 
the  Septuagint  Greek.  2.  It  translates  He- 
brew names  and  expressions  into  Greek,*  as  in 

1  Introduction,  vol.  ii.,  p.  235.  This  is  a  natural  inference;  for 
certainly  if  the  Fathers,  while  recognizing  a  Hebrew  original,  em- 
ploy a  Greek  te.xt  with  perfect  confidence,  they  must  regard  the  Greek 
as  equivalent  to  the  Hebrew. 

2  See  Weiss'  Lift-  of  Christ,  vol.  i.,  p.  69. 

8  See  Smith's  Bihlc  Dictionary,  "  Matthew,"  vol.  lii.,  p.  i8;4. 
*  See  Home's  An  Introduction  to  the  Critical  Study  and  Knowl- 
edge of  the  Nciv  Testament,"  vol.  iv.,  p.  237. 


164      INTRODUCTION    TO    THE   LIFE   OF  JESUS. 

i.  23,  "  Immanuel  ;  which  is,  being  interpreted, 
God  with  us;"  xxvii.  33,  "Golgotha,  that  is  to 
say.  The  place  of  a  skull  ; "  xxvii.  46,  "  Eli, 
Eli,  lama  sabachthani  ?  that  is.  My  God,  my 
God,  why  hast  thou  forsaken  me  ? "  3.  Pro- 
fessor Weiss  ^  mentions  the  following  plays 
upon  words  (  Wortspielc)  as  indicating  the  work 
of  an  original  composer  and  not  a  translator : 
vi.  1 6,  "  Moreover,  when  ye  fast  be  not  as  the 
hypocrites,  of  a  sad  countenance  :  for  they  dis- 
figure (d</)avt^oucnv)  their  faces  that  they  may  be 
seen  (^avwo-iv)  of  men  to  fast  ;"  xxi.  41,  "  He 
will  miserably  destroy  those  miserable  men," 
(^KttKous  KaKtos  (xTroAecrei  arrows)  ;  xxiv.  J ,  "  For  na- 
tion   shall    rise    against    nation,    and    kingdom 

against    kingdom  "   (lBvo<i   l-rn   Wvo%  koI  (iafnXua  lin 

)8ao-iXcta)  ;  and  he  also  instances  two  cases  of 
word-invention,  scarcely  possible  on  the  pen 
of  a  translator,  vi.  7,  PaTToXoytlv  (use  vain  repe- 
titions) and  TToXvXoyta  (much  speaking).  These 
characteristics  have  forced  scholars  of  late  with 
general  unanimity  to  regard  our  present  Mat- 
thew as  an  original  composition  in  the  Greek. 
The  problem  then  is  to  reconcile  the  prevail- 
ing testimony  of  the  Fathers  with  this  fact,  or, 
rather,  to  harmonize,  by  some  plausible  and 
probable  theory,  the  conflicting  testimony.    The 

1  Introduction,  §  47. 


THE  SYNOPTIC  PROBLEM.  105 

fact  that  the  Fathers,  who  declare  that  the  Gos- 
pel was  written  in  Hebrew,  yet  use  this  Greek 
as  the  genuine  work  of  Matthew  without  refer- 
ence to  its  translation,  gives  color  tf)  a  wide- 
spread opinion  ^  that  Matthew,  the  tax-collector, 
accustomed  to  write  and  keep  accounts  in  both 
languages,  penned  a  Gospel  in  each  language, 
and  that  the  one  in  Greek,  being  the  fuller  and 
more  complete  and  in  the  more  extensively 
used  speech,  at  length  wholly  superseded  the 
other.  The  time  of  composition,  then,  of  both 
may  be  spoken  of  as  the  same,  or  very  nearly 
the  same. 

With  this  hypothesis  relieving  us  of  perplex- 
ity concerning  the  language  of  composition,  we 
next  inquire  after  the  date  of  the  Gospel.  Ire- 
naeus^  says,  "Matthew  also  issued  a  written 
Gospel  among  the  Hebrews  in  their  own  dia- 
lect, while  Peter  and  Paul  were  preaching  at 
Rome,  and  laying  the  foundations  of  the 
church."  According  to  general  testimony  of 
the  past,  Peter  and  Paul  both  met  martyrdom 
at  Rome  during  the  Neronian  persecution ;  viz., 
A.D.  68.  Peter  had  not,  however,  come  to 
Rome  as  early  as  a.d.  6i,  when  the  account  in 

1  See  Zockler's  Handbuch  dcr  Thcologischcn  Wisscnschaften, 
Band  I.,  ii.  Abtheilung,  p.  46. 

2  Against  Heresies,  Uk.  HI.,  chap,  i,  §  i. 


1G6      INTRODUCTION    TO    THE  LIFE   OF  JESUS. 

Acts  concludes,  for  had  he  been  present  surely 
some  mention  of  him  must  have  been  made ; 
and  when  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans  was  writ- 
ten 1  he  surely  was  not  in  Rome,  for  though 
twenty-six  persons  at  Rome  are  saluted  indi- 
vidually by  Paul  (Rom.  xvi.),  no  mention  what- 
ever is  made  of  Peter  in  the  epistle.  From 
this  testimony  of  Irenaeus,  therefore,  it  is  fair 
for  us  to  infer  that  Matthew  wrote  between 
A.D.  63  and  A.D.  6S. 

But  we  can  fix  the  date  more  precisely. 
Eusebius^  says  that  Matthew,  having  preached 
to  the  Hebrews,  delivered  to  them  the  Gospel 
written  in  their  own  tongue  as  he  was  about  to 

go    unto    others    (o5s   rjfJieWtv  koI   6</>'   irepovs  livaCy. 

If  this  is  at  the  beginning  of  the  Jewish  war,  as 
Professor  Weiss  maintains,  then  the  year  would 
be  A.D.  66,  the  year  when  that  war  broke  out.^ 
Professor  Weiss  further  maintains  that  Mat- 
thew, in  the  parenthetical  clause  of  xxiv.  1 5, 
"  When  therefore  ye  see  the  abomination  of 
desolation,  which  was  spoken  of  by  Daniel  the 
prophet,  standing  in  the  holy  place  (^Ict  him 
that  rcadctJi  understand^,  then  let  them  that 
are   in   Judea   flee  unto   the   mountains,"   indi- 

1  A.D.  58,  Cf.  Conybeare  &  Howson,  Appendix  ii. 

2  Church  History,  Bk.  III.,  chap.  xxiv. 

3  Professor  Wellhausen,  Encyc.  Brit.,  "  Israel,"  vol.  xiii.,  p.  427. 


THE   SYNOPTIC   PROBLEM.  It '.7 

cates  the  time  of  writiii;^  to  be  when  the 
predicted  destruction  is  impending,  when  the 
dangers  to  his  native  comnKjnweulth  continue  ; 
and  this  would  be  shortly  after  the  breaking 
out  of  the  war  in  a.d.  GO,  that  is  in  a.d.  67. 
This  year,  therefore,  a.d.  6y,  seems,  in  keeping 
with  the  testimony  of  Irenxus  and  luisebius 
and  of  Matthew  himself,  to  appro.ximate  the 
date  of  the  composition. 

I  think,  still  further,  that  the  items  to  which 
Home  refers '  as  indicating  the  composition  at 
the  time  of  persecution  and  tribulation,  which 
he  understamls  as  those  early  years  when  I'aul 
was  active  in  harassing  the  church,  may  still 
better  apply  to  the  condition  of  affairs  when 
Roman  legions  were  threatening  Jerusalem,  and 
the  Temple  was  on  the  verge  of  destruction.- 

Tnic  Gospel  ov  Mark.  —  Of  Mark,  Papias 
says,'^  "  Mark,  having  become  the  interpreter 
of  Peter,  wrote  down  accurately  whatsoever  he 
remembered.  It  was  not,  however,  in  e.xact 
order  that  he  related  the  sayings  or  deeds  of 
Christ.  For  he  neither  heard  the  Lord  nor 
accompanied  him.  Ikit  afterwards,  as  I  said, 
he  accompanied  Peter,  who  accommodated  his 

1  Introduction,  vol.  iv.,  pp.  230,  231. 

■■*  See  Matt.  x.  21,  22,  34-36,  passages  which  are  not  in  any 
parallel. 

3  Quoted  by  Eusebius,  Church  History,  Bk.  HI.,  chap.  x.\xix. 


168     INTRODUCTION    TO    THE  LIFE   OF  JESUS. 

instructions  to  the  necessities  (of  his  hearers), 
but  with  no  intention  of  giving  a  regular  narra- 
tive of  the  Lord's  sayings.  Wherefore  Mark 
made  no  mistake  in  thus  writing  some  things 
as  he  remembered  them.  For  of  one  thing  he 
took  especial  care,  not  to  omit  anything  he  had 
heard,  and  not  to  put  anything  fictitious  into 
the  statements."  In  this  testimony  we  notice 
first  that  Mark's  Gospel  is  not  recognized  as 
following  the  strict  chronological  order,^  and 
that  even  Peter  was  not  so  particular  about 
mere  chronology  as  of  adaptation  to  the  neces- 
sities of  his  hearers.  Yet  the  accuracy  of  state- 
ment is  implied  in  the  case  of  Peter,  and 
vouched  for  in  the  case  of  Mark.  Another 
point  to  observe  is  that  Mark  is  said  to  have 
written  what  he  remembered  and  what  he  Jiad 
keard,  while  Peter  is  spoken  of  in  the  past 
tense,  the  implication  certainly  being  that  Peter 
is  already  dead.  Irenaeus^  says,  "...  while 
Peter  and  Paul  were  preaching  at  Rome,  and 
laying  the  foundations  of  the  church.  After 
their  departure  [i.e.,  death],  Mark,  the  disciple 
and  interpreter  of  Peter,  did  also  hand  down 
in  writing  what  had  been  preached  by  Peter." 

1  Certainly  no  other  "  order  "  can  here  be  intended  ;  for  the  Gos- 
pel of  Mark  surely  has  a  literary  and  logical  order,  to  which  neither 
Papias  nor  any  one  else,  then  or  now.  could  take  exception. 

2  Against  Heresies,  Bk.  III.,  chap,  i.,  §  i. 


THB  SYNOPTIC   PROBLEM.  IC'I 

Since  Peter's  lite  was  not  long  spared  alter 
leaving  Palestine,  the  same  point  of  time  seems 
indicated  here  as  in  Papias,  after  a.d.  66  cer- 
tainly, when  Peter  had  left  Palestine,  and  prob- 
ably after  a.d.  6S,  when  Peter  was  already  dead. 
In  Mark  is  no  reference  to  the  destruction  of 
Jerusalem,  which  occurred  in  A.n.  70 ;  hence 
the  time  of  composition  must  be  found  between 
A.D.  68  and  70,  that  is,  probably  in  a.d.  69. 

We  have  now  at  hand  the  following  historical 
data  for  use  in  attempting  to  solve  the  Synoptic 
problem  :  Luke  was  probably  written  between 
A.D.  60  and  A.D.  6^,  Matthew  (our  Greek  Mat- 
thew) in  A.D.  6j,  and  Mark  in  a.d.  69.  A  He- 
brew Matthew  is  also  to  be  taken  into  account. 
With  this  historical  evidence  we  are  debarred 
at  the  outset  from  accepting  as  an  explanation 
of  the  literary  difficulties  the  "  Mutual  De- 
pendence"  theory;  because  Mark,  who  writes 
chronologically  last,  we  find  to  have  the  lar- 
gest proportion  of  coincidences  with  the  other 
Gospels.  This,  while  seeming  at  first  thought 
to  indicate  the  natural  source  from  which  Mark 
drew  his  material,  becomes  inadequate  when  we 
consider  that  what  is  peculiar  to  Matthew  and 
Luke,  Mark,  for  some  wholly  inexplicable  rea- 
son, has  seen  fit  to  omit.  On  the  Mutual  De- 
pendence  theory   we   may   readily   account   for 


170      INTRODUCTION    TO    THE   LIFE   OF  JESUS. 

additions  incorporated  in  each  later  writing 
from  oral  tradition  or  from  written  source, 
but  omissions  of  matter  no  less  important 
than  the  matter  employed  is  inexplicable. 

It  is  evident  from  Luke's  preface  that  docu- 
ments were  early  produced.  Luke  does  not 
imply  that  there  may  not  have  been  documents 
emanating  from  eye-  and  ear-witnesses,  upon 
which  he  relies.  He  merely  implies  that  among 
the  written  attempts  preceding  his,  order  and 
arrangement  and  extent  of  matter  were  not 
such  as  eye-  and  ear-witnesses  afforded  him. 
It  is  altogether  plausible,  indeed  probable,  that 
Matthew,  the  only  one  of  the  apostles  habituated 
(at  his  collector's  table)  to  the  use  of  the  pen 
before  his  call  to  discipleship,  should  have  been 
the  first  to  have  felt  the  impulse  to  write,  and 
that,  too,  not  long  after  the  ascension,  certainly 
a  considerable  time  before  Luke  wrote  his  Gos- 
pel. What  Matthew  then  did,  others  outside 
the  apostolic  circle  would  attempt.  It  is  these 
unapostolic  narratives,  doubtless,  irregular  and 
incomplete,  not  issuing  from  eye-  and  ear-wit- 
nesses, to  which  Luke  would  naturally  object. 
The  other  apostles  were  fresh  from  their  fish- 
ing, "unlearned  and  ignorant  men"  (as  the 
Jewish  rulers  termed  them.  Acts  iv.  13),  un- 
prepared   for    literary   work   until   after   longer 


THE  SYNOPTIC  PROBLF.M.  171 

training  in  preaching,  when  at  length  the  ne- 
cessity of  writing  became  both  apparent  and 
urgent.  Luke,  as  he  wrote,  would  naturally 
employ  the  apostolic  document  at  his  command, 
Matthew's  Xoyta.  He  had  the  literary  taste  ;  for 
he  had  consulted  many  such  documents,  as  he 
himself  declares,  and  his  style  of  writing  is  that 
of  a  literary  adept.  No  portion  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament is  in  better  Greek  than  his  few  opening 
sentences.  To  the  written  source  he  wt)nld 
add  considerable  from  the  oral  testimony  of  eye- 
and  ear-witnesses.  It  was  his  design  to  enlarge 
upon  and  correct  his  predecessors.  He  was 
a  companion  of  Paul.  His  oral  and  written 
sources  would  therefore  be  largely  such  as  Paul 
would  approve.  That  Paul  knew  thoroughly 
the  events  in  the  life  of  Jesus  we  cannot  doubt, 
although  not  himself  an  eye-witness  with  the 
Twelve.  He  had,  however,  heard  Stephen 
preach  and  Peter  preach,  and  doubtless  the 
other  apostles.  He  had  learned  the  details  of 
Christ's  life  so  that  he  could  remind  his  hearers 
at  Ephesus  of  what  Jesus  had  said  (Acts  xx. 
35),  and  by  so  doing  repeat  what  no  evangelist 
has  recorded  ;  he  could  himself  '•  placard  "  Christ 
before  the  eyes  of  the  Galatians  (Gal.  iii.  i). 
The  man  who  had  conducted  an  inquisition 
against   the   Christians,  accustomed  as  he  was 


172     INTRODUCTION   TO    THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS. 

by  the  best  education  of  the  day  to  Hterary 
research,  would  also  have  found  in  his  inqui- 
sition the  writings  of  his  victims,  and  busied 
himself  as  much  in  investigating  them  as  in 
searching  out  the  men.  What  subsequently  he 
preached  of  Christ,  he  would  have  derived  from 
reliable  written  and  oral  sources,  the  testimony 
of  apostles.  Paul,  therefore,  in  as  far  as  he 
aided  and  countenanced  Luke,  contributed  apos- 
tolic reminiscences.  Assurance  of  this  gave 
both  Luke  and  Paul  confidence  to  write. 

When  at  length  Matthew  wrote  in  Greek,  he 
would  naturally  repeat  what  in  substance  he 
had  at  first  written  in  Hebrew,  because  these 
were  the  facts,  penned  under  the  first  impres- 
sions and  reiterated  and  enforced  by  constant 
repetition  ;  yet  he  would  add  to  them  what  at 
first  he  had  omitted,  and  add,  at  that  distance 
in  time,  not  in  chronological  order,  but  in  con- 
nection with  similar  topics.  He  would  draw 
from  other  sources,  written  some  of  them  by 
his  colleagues,  or  spoken  by  them  all  as  their 
preaching  had  continued. 

Mark's  Gospel,  we  must  remember,  though 
written  last,  has  the  largest  proportion  of  agree- 
ments with  the  other  two,  and  preserves,  there- 
fore, most  nearly  the  oldest  source  from  which 
the  others  drew.    From  what  we  know  of  Mark, 


THE  SYNOPTIC  PROBLEM.  173 

and  Peter,  whom  Mark  "interpreted,"  this  is 
exactly  what  we  should  expect.  Peter,  though 
impulsive  of  speech  and  ardent  in  action,  was 
yet  in  character  and  conviction  extremely  con- 
servative. He  it  was  who  was  so  slow  to  real- 
ize the  reception  of  the  Gentiles  within  the 
circle  of  divine  grace  that  a  special  vision  was 
necessary  for  him  ;  and  yet  he  lapsed,  as  Paul 
declares  in  the  epistle  to  the  Galatians,  back 
to  the  old  exclusiveness.  Peter's  Epistle^  and 
Peter's  speeches  evince  tenacity  of  thought  and 
plan.  Mark,  likewise,  is  conservative,  indis- 
posed to  changes  and  innovations,  as  the  apos- 
tolic history  plainly  shows.  When  he  turned 
back  from  Paul  and  Barnabas  at  Pamphylia,  he 
evinces  his  yearning  for  the  old  security  of 
home,  his  lack  of  confidence  in  the  new  mis- 
sionary enterprises,  and  his  dissatisfaction,  also, 
that  at  this  time  his  kinsman,  Barnabas,  had 
been  supplanted  in  leadership  and  influence  by 
the  younger  man,  Paul.  With  these  conserva- 
tive characteristics  it  is  natural,  therefore,  that 
both  Peter  and  Mark  should  cling  to  the  earliest 
form  of  the  Gospel  narrative,  though  not  the 
most  complete.  Mark's  brevity,  graphic,  pearl- 
like rapidity,  and  his  large  proportion  of  coinci- 

1  I  use  the  singular  in  reference  to  the  First  Epistle,  against  the 
genuineness  of  wliich  no  reasonable  objection  has  been  raised. 


174      INTRODUCTION    TO    THE  LIFE   OF  JESUS. 

dences   with    the  other  Gospels,  find,  also,  an 
explanation  from  these  considerations. 

The  following,  therefore,  seems  to  me  the  line 
of  least  resistance  for  the  solution  of  the  Synop- 
tic problem.  An  account  of  the  words  and 
deeds  of  Christ  early  took  definite  form  on  the 
lips  of  the  apostles.  This  we  call  the  oral  Gos- 
pel. Soon  various  written  records  of  this  oral 
Gospel,  with  modifications  according  to  the  more 
specific  information  or  the  temperament  of  the 
writers,  were  made.  Matthew,  accustomed  to 
the  use  of  the  pen,  would  be  one  of  the  first  to 
write ;  and  his  record,  because  from  an  apostle, 
would  be  regarded  with  special  respect.  These 
may  all  have  been  in  Hebrew.  Matthew's,  at 
least,  was.  At  length  Paul,  missionary  to  the 
Gentiles,  writing  epistles  in  Greek,  leaving  con- 
verts behind  him  in  every  city,  feels  the  need  of 
a  Gospel  in  Greek,  comprehensive  and  consecu- 
tive in  character.  This  is  penned  by  his  com- 
panion, Luke,  and  addressed  to  Theophilus, 
probably  some  Gentile  official  of  influence  and 
repute.  Luke  can  avail  himself,  as  he  writes, 
of  this  oral  Gospel,  known  by  himself  and  Paul, 
and  of  the  many  written  narratives,  but  espe- 
cially of  Matthew's.  A  few  years  later  Matthew 
himself,  about  to  depart  from  Palestine  and 
move  amongst  the  Jews  of  the  dispersion,  feels 


THE  SYNOPTIC   rROliU'-M.  ITo 

the  impulse  to  write  fur  them  a  Gospel  in  the 
Greek.  He  uses  as  a  basis  his  previous  narra- 
tive, but  modifies  that  simple  account,  as  his 
later,  fuller  appreciation  of  the  Christ  has 
brought  into  bold  relief  the  salient  features  of 
that  life,  by  particularly  grouping  the  sayings 
of  Jesus  into  discourses,  and  by  laying  stress 
upon  the  fulfilment  of  prophecy.  A  little  later 
still,  Mark  in  far-away  Rome,  bereft  of  Peter, 
who  had  been  a  father  to  him,^  writes  a  Gospel 
in  the  form  and  phrases  which  Peter  had  ap- 
proved. This  is  closely  along  the  line  of  the 
first  preaching,  nearly  as  Matthew  had  written 
in  the  Hebrew. 

This  explanation  sets  the  composition  of  the 
three  Synoptic  Gospels  in  the  seventh  decade  of 
the  first  century.  It  makes  the  order  of  compo- 
sition to  be  Luke,  Matthew,  Mark.  It  assumes 
the  existence  of  more  than  one  source  from 
which  the  writers  drew  in  common,  but  chiefly 
the  oral  Gospel  and  Matthew's  Xo'yia.  It  is  true 
to  the  historic  data.  It  also  points  to  an  eluci- 
dation of  the  literary  difficulties,  how  Mark's 
Gospel  may  have  its  large  percentage  of  coinci- 
dences, and  Matthew's  and  Luke's  their  con- 
siderable proportion  of  divergences. 

By  the  testimony  of  the  Fathers  the  three 

1  Cf.  I  Pet.  V.  I  ^.  '•  Mark   mv  son." 


176     INTRODUCTION   TO    THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS. 

Gospels  are  made  practically  apostolic.  Luke's 
is  associated  with  Paul,  Mark's  really  issues 
from  Peter,  and  Matthew's  is  by  the  apostle  of 
that  name.  By  this  showing  the  Synoptic  Gos- 
pels are  witnesses  of  the  highest  order,  coming 
from  men  who  associated  with  Jesus  intimately, 
and,  as  far  as  they  were  able,  had  a  personal 
acquaintance  with  his  words,  his  works,  and  his 
spirit. 


CHAPTER    XV. 

THE    CHRISTIAN    SOURCES THE    JUHANNINE 

PROBLEM. 

To  the  student  of  the  New  Testament  no 
questions  are  more  perplexin<^  and  intricate 
than  those  pertaining  to  the  genuineness  and 
authenticity  of  the  Fourth  Gospel.  Did  John 
the  evangelist  write  the  Gospel  usually  ascribed 
to  him  ?  Is  the  evidence  of  the  centuries  con- 
vincing on  this  point  ?  And  does  the  testimony 
of  the  book  itself  corroborate  what  the  church 
has  claimed  ?  Are  there  incompatible  diver- 
gences between  John's  account  of  the  life  of 
Christ,  and  the  account  given  by  the  other 
three  evangelists.?  Do  the  other  writings  of 
John,  his  Epistles  and  the  Apocalypse,  weaken 
or  strengthen  our  confidence  in  the  Gospel  ? 
For  a  half-century  discussion  has  been  rife 
around  these  issues. 

I  cannot  quite  agree  with   Professor  Riddle, 

who  says,  "The  defence  of  the  Fourth  Gospel 

has   become   in    large   measure   the   defence  of 

historic   Cliristianity."      I   recognize   the  impor- 

177 


178     INTRODUCTION   TO   THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS. 

tance  of  the  Fourth  Gospel,  and  yet  do  not 
regard  it  as  indispensable  to  an  understanding 
of  the  historic  Christ.  It  adds  many  details  to 
the  life  of  Christ ;  it  presents  the  Christ  from  a 
unique  point  of  view;  it  very  largely  interprets 
the  life,  which  it  at  the  same  time  records  ; 
yet  its  characteristic  features  are  nearly  all 
germinant  in  the  Synoptic  narrative.  It  has 
become  the  fashion  with  many  critics  to  mag- 
nify the  differences  between  the  Synoptics  and 
the  Fourth  Gospel.  But  to  my  mind  the  dif- 
ferences, when  given  their  fullest  weight,  relate 
more  to  form  than  to  substance. 

A  quarter  of  a  century  ago.  Dr.  Edmund  H. 
Sears,  in  his  book.  The  FoiirtJi  Gospel,  The  Heart 
of  Christ,  made  plain  the  essential  unity  of  the 
four  Gospels.  He  showed  first,  that  Luke  evi- 
dently had  the  confidence  of  John,  and  related 
things  upon  John's  authority,  and  that  conse- 
quently portions  of  the  Third  Gospel  may  be 
regarded  as  substantially  John's  testimony. 
The  following  considerations  will  bear  out  this 
statement. 

lo  We  know  that  Paul  met  John  at  Jeru- 
salem, and  found  him  a  "pillar  of  the  church" 
(Gal.  ii.  9),  very  near  the  time  when  Luke  be- 
came the  companion  of  Paul ;  and  "  it  is  hardly 
conceivable,"     says     Dr.     Sears,^    "  that     Luke 

1  Page  207. 


THR  J0H/1NNINE   PROBLEM.  1T*.» 

should  not  have  been  broiir;ht  into  personal 
intercourse  with  the  disciple  who  had  the  most 
intimate  relations  with  Jesus."  That  the  visit 
of  Paul  to  Jerusalem,  recorded  in  the  second 
chapter  of  Galatians,  is  to  be  identifieil  with 
the  visit  at  the  time  of  the  council  described 
in  the  fifteenth  chapter  of  Acts,  is  generally 
agreed  by  scholars  ;  ^  and  it  is  shortly  after  this 
council  that  the  author  of  the  Acts  is  with 
Paul,  for  he  writes  then  in  the  first  person 
(Acts  xvi.  lO  S(j.^  in  a  manner  naturally  to 
suggest  an  association  with  Paul  already  <tf 
some  duration.  This  certainly  gives  the  aspect 
of  plausibility  to  the  argument  for  contact  be- 
tween Luke  and  John. 

2.  In  the  preface  to  his  Gospel,  Luke  indi- 
cates that  he  wrote  on  the  authority  of  eye- 
witnesses. John  hail  special  opportunities  for 
seeing  and  hearing  the  works  and  words  of  his 
Master.      He  was  with  Jesus  more  than  a  year 

1  See  Paley,  Ifonc  Paulina,  chap,  v.,  no.  x. ;  Conybeare  and 
Howson,  The  Life  and  Epistles  of  St.  Paul,  vol.  i.,  chap,  vii.,  note, 
and  Appendix  II.;  Lightfoot,  Galatians,  \>.  123  S(j.  :  Godet,  Intro- 
duction  to  the  Nciv  Testament;  St.  PauPs  Epistles  p.  22;;  sq.: 
Sieffert,  Der  Brief  an  die  Galaier,  p.  71  sq.;  Weiss,  l.ehrbueh  der 
Einleitung  in  das  Neue  Testament,  p.  131  sq. ;  M'CIyniont,  The 
New  Testament  and  its  Writers,  p.  132.  Professor  Kamsay,  in  his 
recent  book,  St.  Paul  the  Traveller,  identifies  the  visit  of  Clal.  ii. 
with  that  mentioned  in  Acts  xi.  30;  but  Professor  ."^anday  in  The 
Expositor,  February  1S96,  pp.  84-SS,  to  my  mind  successfully  dis- 
putes this  position. 


180      INTRODUCTION    TO    THE   LIFE    OF  JESUS. 

before  the  Twelve  were  called ;  ^  and  he  it  was 
who  became  a  son  to  the  mother  of  Jesus,  tak- 
ing her  to  his  own  home  (John  xix.  25-27). 
Luke  describes,  as  neither  of  the  other  Synop- 
tists  does,  the  experiences  and  thoughts  of 
Mary,  the  mother,  the  angelophanies,  and  the 
mysterious  overshadowing  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
by  whom  the  child  was  conceived.  This  is  in 
accord  with  the  account  which  John  gives  of 
the  pre-existent,  divine  nature  of  Jesus.  Then, 
further,  Luke's  description  of  the  childhood  of 
Jesus,  his  visit  to  Jerusalem,  the  search  of  the 
parents,  their  thoughts  and  their  utterances  on 
finding  him  among  the  doctors  of  the  temple, 
could  only  have  come  from  the  mother.  "  Mary 
might  not  have  been  living  when  Luke  wrote ; 
but  whether  so  or  not,  John,  adopted  as  her 
son  under  circumstances  of  bereavement  un- 
paralleled in  any  story  of  human  sorrow,  would 
be  the  person  to  whom  she  would  confide  such 
facts  as  are  detailed  in  Luke's  first  chapter; 
and  any  writer  must  have  been  strangely  re- 
miss and  careless,  if,  writing  on  such  subjects, 
he  would  not  eagerly  avail  himself  of  such 
authority."^ 

3.    "  Luke,  in  portions  of  his  narrative,  is  in- 

1  From  the  time  of  the  first  meeting,  John  i.  35  sg. 

2  Sears,  p.  209. 


THE  J  OH  ANN  IN  E   PROBLEM.  181 

tensely  Johannean.  .  .  .  Those  parables  which 
search  the  inner  life  most  thoroughly,  and  go  to 
the  deeper  hunger  and  thirst  of  the  soul,  are 
reported  by  Luke  alone  ;  and  some  of  them 
plainly,  all  of  them  possibly,  belong  to  that  sec- 
tion of  the  ministry  of  Jesus  which  antedates 
the  residence  at  Capernaum,  but  includes  the 
sole  discipleship  of  John  and  one  or  two  others 
along  with  him.  There  are  five  of  these  para- 
bles preserved  only  by  Luke,  —  the  Prodigal 
Son,  the  Unjust  Steward,  Dives  and  Lazarus, 
the  Good  Samaritan,  the  Pharisee  and  the 
Publican.  They  differ  from  the  parables  prop- 
erly so-called,  and  freely  reported  by  RLitthew, 
inasmuch  as  they  are  not  drawn  from  the  analo- 
gies of  nature,  but  from  human  life,  sometimes 
in  its  dearest  and  sweetest  relations,  and  touch 
a  tenderer  chord  of  sympathy  and  love.  They 
symbolize  a  more  intimate  relation  between  the 
heavenly  Leather  and  the  human  child,  and  they 
represent  the  universal  brotherhood  of  the  race. 
The  beggar  in  Hades  resting  in  Abraham's 
bosom,  the  publican  justified  before  the  Phar- 
isee, the  man  robbed  and  half  murdered  in  the 
city  of  priests,  to  be  cared  for  by  the  despised 
Samaritan,  show  unmistakably  the  Saviour  in 
conflict  with  Judaism  in  its  own  capital,  where 
his  ministry  commenced  with  John  and  one  or 


182      INTRODUCTION    TO    THE  LIFE   OF  JESUS. 

two  others  as  his  fehow-disciples.  They  show 
Christianity  thoroughly  cleared  of  Judaism. 
These  parables,  where  it  is  divinely  embodied, 
could  have  come  only  through  an  eye-  and  ear- 
witness,  and  they  are  most  congenial  with  the 
spirit  of  John."  ^ 

4.  There  are  events  described  by  Luke,  of 
which  John,  of  all  the  twelve,  was  the  sole  spec- 
tator ;  and  he  probably  was  the  only  sympa- 
thizer with  Jesus  who  would  have  reported  the 
facts  as  Luke  has  recorded  them.  This  is  par- 
ticularly true  of  events  which  took  place  in  the 
high  priest's  palace  into  which  John  and  Peter 
alone  had  been  admitted  (John  xviii.  15,  16), 
and  from  which  Peter,  having  denied  his  Lord, 
had  gone  out  weeping  (Luke  xxii.  62,  63-71)  ; 
and  it  is  true  also,  when,  the  others  having  fled, 
John  alone  followed  Jesus  to  Pilate's  judgment 
seat  and  to  the  cross  (Luke  xxiii.  6-1 1,  26- 
44).  The  narrative  of  the  transfiguration  and 
of  the  agony  in  the  garden,  while  given  by  all 
three  Synoptists,  yet  contains  details  not  found 
in  Matthew  or  Mark  ;  and  these  details  are 
of  a  nature,  sympathetic  and  spiritual,  such  as 
pre-eminently  characterize  the  Fourth  Gospel.^ 

1  Sears,  p.  210. 

2  E.g.,  in  the  transfiguration:  praying,  Luke  ix.  28,  29;  "the 
fashion  of  his  countenance  was  altered,"  v.  29;  "in  glory,"  v.  31; 
"  and  he  spake  of  his  decease  which  he  was  about  to  accomplish  at 


THE  JOHANNINE  PROBLEM.  183 

Now  at  these  scenes  none  but  rclcr,  James,  and 
John  were  present  ;  and  the  inference  is  cer- 
tainly natural  that  the  likeness  between  the 
Third  and  the  Fourth  Gospels  is  due  to  one 
common  source  of  information,  John. 

The  Fourth  Gospel  and  the  First  Gospel 
have  noticeable  similarities  also.  The  philo- 
sophical form  of  statement  in  the  fnst  chapter 
of  John  is  not  found  in  Matthew's  Gospel  ;  but 
the  same  thought  in  substance  is  recorded  near 
the  end  of  the  eleventh  chapter  :  "  All  things 
have  been  delivered  unto  me  of  my  I'^ither : 
and  no  one  knowcth  the  Son,  save  the  Father  ; 
neither  doth  any  one  know  the  Ivither,  save  the 
Son,  and  he  to  whomsoever  the  Son  willclh  to 
reveal  him  "  (Matt.  xi.  27  ).i    Christ,  as  the  juilge 

Jerusalem,"  v.  31  ;  "  Now  Peter  and  they  that  were  witli  liim  were 
heavy  with  sleep  ;  but  when  tliey  were  fully  awake,  they  saw  his 
giory,  and  the  two  men  that  stood  with  him,"  v.  32 ;  "  it  came  to 
'  pass,  as  they  were  parting  from  him,"  v.  33  ;  "  my  chosen,"  v.  35. 
In  the  garden  of  (iethsemane :  "  I'ray  that  ye  enter  not  into  temp- 
tation," Luke  xxii.  40 ;  "  was  parted  from  them  about  a  stone's 
cast;  and  he  kneeled  down,"  v.  41;  "if  thou  be  willing,"  v.  42; 
"And  there  appeared  unto  him  an  angel  from  heaven,  strength- 
ening him :  and  being  in  an  agony  he  prayed  more  earnestly :  and 
his  sweat  tecame,  as  it  were,  gre.it  drops  of  blood  falling  down  upon 
the  ground,"  vv.  43,  44;  "when  he  rose  up  from  his  prayer,"  v.  45; 
"for  sorrow,"  v.  45  ;  "  Why  sleep  ye?  rise."  v.  46. 

1  Rev.  J.  A.  Cross,  M.A.,  in  The  Expositor,  February,  1896, 
p.  151,  cites  this  passage,  Matt.  xiii.  16,  17,  and  I.uke  x.  21-24.  as 
evidence  that  the  theology,  which  is  regarded  as  peculiar  to  John, 
existed    long  before  him,  and  only   the  language  and  style  are  en- 


184     INTRODUCTION    TO    THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS. 

of  men,  is  set  forth  in  the  Fourth  Gospel  (iii. 
16-21  ;  V.  22,  26-30;  viii.  15-18;  xii.  44-50). 
So  is  he  in  the  First  Gospel,  with  a  vividness 
unsurpassed  (xxv.  31-46).  The  two  descrip- 
tions differ  in  form  rather  than  in  substance. 
The  divine  character  of  Jesus,  so  prominent  in 
the  Fourth  Gospel,  is  also  plainly  indicated  in 
the  First  Gospel,  not  only  in  the  miracles  per- 
formed, the  teaching,  which  was  with  authority 
(Matt.  vii.  29),  and  the  ascription  of  omni- 
science (ix.  4;  xii.  25;  cf.  Mark  ii.  8;  xii.  15), 
but  by  direct  statement  at  the  conclusion  of  the 
Gospel,  "All  authority  hath  been  given  unto 
me  in  heaven  and  on  earth.  Go  ye  therefore, 
and  make  disciples  of  all  the  nations,  baptizing 
them  into  the  name  of  the  Father  and  of  the 
Son  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost :  teaching  them 
to  observe  all  things  whatsoever  I  commanded 
you  :  and  lo,  I  am  with  you  alway,  even  unto 
the  end  of  the  world  "  (Matt,  xxviii.  18-20).  It 
must  be  remembered  also  that  Matthew  records 
the  promise  on  the  lips  of  Jesus  which  virtually 
acknowledges    omnipresence,    "Where   two    or 

tirely  his  own.  It  may  be  remarked  here  also  that  the  differences 
between  John  and  Paul  are  more  in  form  than  in  substance.  Profes- 
sor G.  B.  Stevens,  D.D.,  of  Yale,  in  his  The  Johanninc  Theology, 
p.  370,  sums  up  a  comparison  between  John  and  Paul  in  these 
words  :  "  It  appears  to  me,  therefore,  that  the  two  apostles,  notwith- 
standing the  formal  differences  in  the  development  and  application 
of  their  ideas  of  love,  are  essentially  one." 


THE  JOHANNINE  PROBLEM.  185 

three  are  gathered  together  in  my  name,  there 
am  I  in  the  midst  of  them  "  (xviii.  20).  As  in 
John,  Jesus  is  reported  as  saying,  "  I  and  my 
Father  are  one  "  (x.  30),  and  caUing  God  repeat- 
edly his  Father  (v.  17,  43;  vi.  32;  viii.  19, 
38,  49,  54;  X.  18,  25,  29,  37  ;  xiv.  2,  7,  20,  21  ; 
XV.  I,  8,  10,  15,  23  ;  XX.  17),  so  in  Matthew  the 
same  relationship  is  declared  on  the  lips  of 
Jesus  in  the  same  terms  (Matt.  vii.  21  ;  xii.  50  ; 
X.  32,  33;  .xi.  27;  XV.  13;  xvi.  17;  xviii.  10, 
19,  35  ;  XX.  23  ;  XXV.  34;  x.xvi.  29,  39,  42,  53). 
The  Synoptic  Gospels  are,  in  good  measure, 
a  vindication  of  the  Fourth  Gospel ;  and  the 
historic  evidences  adduced  for  them  bear  also 
largely  upon  the  genuineness  and  authenticity 
of  the  other  ;  and  yet  the  Johannine  problem  is 
distinct.  The  full  scope  of  the  problem  may  be 
seen  from  a  survey  of  the  subjects  which  it  is 
necessary  for  an  investigator  to  examine  before 
he  can  pronounce  upon  the  genuineness  of  the 
Gospel.^ 

1  For  this  examination  many  books  of  reference  would  be  helpful, 
but  a  few  may  suffice.  Three  seem  indispensable :  The  Bampton 
Lectures  for  1890  entitled  Modern  Criticism  Considered  in  its  Kcla- 
tion  to  the  Fourth  Gospel,  by  Archdeacon  H.  W.  Watkins ;  The 
Fourth  Gospel,  Evidences  External  and  Internal  of  its  Johannean 
Authorship :  Essays  by  Ezra  Abbot,  Andrew  P.  Peabody,  and 
Bishop  Light/oot,  1S91  ;  and  Introduction  to  the  Johannine  Writings, 
by  Paton  J.  Gloag,  D.D.,  1S91.  I  mention  the  following  also,  which, 
if  accessible,  should  be  consulted:    The  commentaries  on  John  of 


186      INTRODUCTION   TO    THE  LIFE   OF  JESUS. 

1.  He  must  make  an  analysis  of  the  Gospel 
of  John.  It  is  necessary  to  distinguish  between 
epitomizing  and  analyzing.  Epitomizing  is  a 
mechanical  process  by  compression  ;  it  simply 
eliminates  words  and  reduces  bulk.  Analyzing 
is,  so  to  speak,  a  chemical  process  by  which  the 
constituent  elements  of  motive,  argumentation, 
and  logic  are  discovered.  What  may  be  re- 
garded as  the  theme  of  the  book .-'  What  does 
it  attempt  to  show,  or  prove  1  What  are  its 
natural  divisions  .''  To  analyze  upon  the  basis 
of  mere  geographical  or  chronological  divisions 
is  to  fail  of  the  thought-element  in  the  book. 
The  analysis  should  spring  from  the  nature  of 
the  narrative. 

2.  He  must  compare  the  Gospel  of  John 
with  the  Synoptic  record.  It  is  necessary  to 
notice,  first,  the  differences  in  literary  form, 
including  both  the  structure  of  the  whole,  as 
brought  out  in  the  analysis,  and  also  the  differ- 
ences in  striking  words  and  phrases ;  then  to 

Godet,  Westcott,  Weiss,  and  Plummer  {Cambridge  Bible  for  Schools 
and  Colleges)  ;  the  Introductions  to  the  New  Testatnent  of  Weiss, 
Salmon,  and  Dods  ;  Weiss'  Life  of  Christ,  chaps,  v.,  vi.,  and  vii. ; 
and  a  series  of  articles  begun  in  The  Coiitcmporary  Review,  Septem- 
ber, 1S91,  and  in  The  Expositor,  November,  1891,  and  reproduced  in 
The  Magazine  of  Christian  Literature,  beginning  with  October, 
1891.  See  my  article,  "The  Fourth  Gospel:  An  Outline -for  the 
Study  of  its  Higher  Criticism,"  The  Biblical  World,  March,  1893, 
pp.  190-193: 


THE  JOHANNINE  PROBLEM.  1 87 

compare  them  in  their  agreements  in  recorded 
incidents,  in  their  omissions  and  their  apparent 
contradictions  ;  and,  finally,  to  compare  them, 
as  they  usually  are  compared,  in  respect  to  their 
"  differences  as  to  place  and  form  of  our  Lord's 
teaching,  and  differences  as  to  the  view  which 
is  given  of  his  Person."  ' 

3.  An  examination  must  be  made  of  the  ex- 
ternal evidence  for  the  genuineness  and  authen- 
ticity of  John's  Gospel.  The  reader  must 
remember  that  "genuineness"  refers  to  the 
question  of  authorshij),  and  "  authenticity  "  re- 
fers purely  to  credibility.  Who  wrote  the 
book  }  When  this  question  is  conclusively  an- 
swered, the  authorship  is  established.  \\\\\ 
there  remain  still  the  questions.  Was  the  author 
in  a  jiosition  to  know  the  facts  which  he  states.? 
and.  Was  he  sufficiently  free  from  prejudice  or 
bias  to  relate  them  without  alteration .?  Exter- 
nal evidence  is  evidence  drawn  from  sources 
outside  the  book  itself.  A  search  for  this  evi- 
dence will  lead  the  investigator  to  an  examina- 
tion of  the  writings  of  the  church  l'\athers,  and 
all  extant  literature  bearing  upon  the  subject, 
particularly  in  the  second  century.  While  this 
evidence    has    been    collected    and    sifted,  and 

1  Westcott's  [ntroiluition  to  tht  StiiJy  of  the  Gospels,  chap,  v., 
§  ii.,  will  be  (ouiiJ  helpful  on  this  subject. 


188     INTRODUCTION   TO    THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS. 

weighed  again  and  again,  yet,  in  order  to  know 
its  value,  a  true  student  must  test  it  for  him- 
self. He  should,  if  accessible,  see  in  their 
original  setting  all  the  quotations  which  his 
guides  adduce.^ 

4.  An  examination  of  the  internal  evidence 
for  the  genuineness  and  authenticity  of  John's 
Gospel  must  also  be  made.  This  evidence  is  to 
be  found  in  the  book  itself.  Do  the  character- 
istics of  the  narrative  show  that  it  was  written 
by  a  Jew,  by  one  who  lived  or  had  lived  in 
Palestine,  by  one  who  had  seen  the  events 
which  he  describes  ;  and  are  there  indications 
that  one  of  the  apostles,  in  close  company  with 
the  principal  character,  wrote  it  >  Answers  to 
these  questions  can  legitimately  be  sought  in 
the  book  itself. 

5.  The  evidential  value  of  the  epistles  of 
John  to  the  authenticity  of  the  Fourth  Gospel 
must  be  weighed.  But  when  the  epistles  of 
John  are  brought  into  court,  the  critic  must 
first  know  their  worth.  He  must,  therefore, 
examine  their  claims  for  acceptance  as  genuine 
writings  of  the  apostle.  When  their  genuine- 
ness is  established,  then  they  should  be  com- 

1  The  Fathers  can  be  consulted  in  the  series  published  by  the 
Christian  Literature  Company,  T/ie  Ante-Nicene  Fathers,  and  The 
Nicene  and  Post-Nicene  Fathers. 


THE  JOHANNINF.   rROBLF.M.  1  81) 

pared    in    style,    structure,    and    sul)ject-matter 
with  the  Gospel.^ 

6.  The  Gospel  of  John  must  be  compared 
with  the  Apocalypse  of  John.  'Ihis  U)\nc  of 
investigation  demands  first  an  examination  of 
the  genuineness  of  the  Apocalypse.^  The  date 
of  its  composition  must  be  at  least  appro.xi- 
mately  fixed  in  view  of  all  the  existing  phe- 
nomena. The  history  of  its  criticism  through 
all  the  centuries  must  be  scanned.  Its  style, 
grammatical  and  rhetorical,  must  be  compared 
with  that  of  the  Gospel  ;  and  then  the  question 
must  be  satisfactorily  answered  whether  the 
two  documents  could  have  originated  in  the 
same  mind,  and,  if  so,  what  theory  consistent 
with  all  the  facts  known  will  satisfactorily  ac- 
count for  their  differences.^ 

7.  A  biography  of  John  the  evangelist  must 
be  prepared  in  order  to  appreciate  fully  his  his- 
torical setting  as  a  man  and  as  an  author.  This 
will  involve,  not  only  an  examination  of  the 
data  concerning  John  to  be  found  in  the  New 
Testament,  with  a  careful  weighing  of  all  the 

1  See  Bishop  Westcott's  The  EfistUs  of  St.  John. 

2  The  recent  partition  theories  of  the  origin  of  the  Apocalypse 
are  described  in  an  article,  "  Recent  Theories  of  the  Origin  of  the 
Apocalypse,"  by  Rev.  E.  C.  Moore,  published  in  The  Journal  of 
Biblical  Literature,  voX.  x.,  part  i.,  1891. 

8  A  helpful  work  is  Simcox's  "  The  Revelation  of  St.  John  the 
Divine  "  in  the  Cambridge  Bible  for  Hchools  and  Colleges. 


190      INTRODUCTION    TO    THE   LIFE   OF  JESUS. 

inferences  that  may  be  legitimately  deduced 
therefrom,  but  also  a  thorough  investigation  of 
of  the  claims  which  have  been  made  from  the 
scant  testimony  of  Papias  to  the  existence  of 
a  presbyter  John,  and  his  subsequent  identifica- 
tion with  the  evangelist,  and  also  a  searching 
scrutiny  of  the  evidence  for  the  Ephesian  resi- 
dence of  the  evangelist,  and  his  absorption  of 
Greek  philosophy  and  Greek  culture  sufficient 
to  enable  him  to  write  the  Fourth  Gospel. 

The  problem  opened  by  these  sev^en  topics 
will  be  found  to  be  intricate  and  involved. 
Friends  who  set  out  on  the  journey  of  investi- 
gation together  will  come  to  many  a  crossing 
and  by-path  where  fidelity  to  personal  judgment 
and  personal  conviction  will  compel  them  to 
part  comj^any,  at  least  for  a  season  ;  and  yet 
the  degree  of  unanimity  finally  arrived  at  is 
surprising,   in  view  of  the  difficulties. 

To  my  mind  the  internal  characteristics  of 
the  Gospel  prove  clearly  that  it  was  written  by 
a  Jew,  by  one  of  Palestine,  by  one  personally 
acquainted  with  the  events  described,  by  one 
within  the  apostolic  circle,  and  by  one  of  the 
three  more  intimate  companions  of  Jesus,  who 
must  be  identified  with  the  unnamed  disciple 
"whom  Jesus  loved"  (John  xiii.  23;  xix.  26; 
XX.  2  ;  xxi.  7,  20,  24). 


THE  JOHylNNINE  PROBLEM.  l'.»l 

As  for  external  evidence :  I  think  it  has  been 
proved^  that  Justin  Martyr  was  acquainted  with 
this  Gospel  ;  that  it  is  obvious  that  Tatian  used 
it ;  and  that  the  common  acceptance  of  it  by 
Irenaeus  and  his  contemporaries,  with  whom 
Polycarp,  a  disciple  of  John,  had  been  in  in- 
timate communication,  establishes  the  time  of 
its  composition  as  back  in  the  first  century,  and 
by  the  disciple  himself.  The  genuineness  of 
the  First  Epistle  of  John  is  clear  ;  and,  since  it 
so  closely  resembles  the  Fourth  Gospel  in  style 
and  spirit  and  matter,  it  is  corroborative  of  that. 
Although  the  Apocalypse  and  the  Gospel  are 
unlike  in  style,  structure,  allusions,  spirit,  and 
almost  every  literary  characteristic  ;  yet  if, 
as  seems  probable,  they  were  composed  about 
twenty-five  or  thirty  years  apart,  the  Apocalypse 
before  a.d.  70  and  the  Gospel  after  a.d.  95, 
then  their  contrasts  and  contradictions  can  be 
readily  accounted  for  by  the  changes  which  in 
that  space  of  time  would  take  place  in  a  Jewish 
peasant  of  refined  spirit,  yet  previously  of  scant 
advantages,  who  finds  himself  charged  with  a 
world-mission,  and  surrounded  with  an  atmos- 
phere, both  human  and  divine,  of  the  richest 
culture,  —  he  would  naturally  change  by  en- 
largement. 

1  By  Ezra  Abbot,  see  above,  p.  131. 


192     INTRODUCTION   TO    THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS. 

It  is  true  that  the  Fourth  Gospel  presents  a 
Christ  immediately  conscious,  at  his  first  pub- 
lic appearance,  of  his  Messianic  character,  and 
needing  not  that  "  any  should  bear  witness  con- 
cerning man ;  for  he  himself  knew  what  was  in 
man,"  ^  while  the  Synoptics  represent  him  as 
more  gradually  and  less  completely  assuming 
the  attributes  of  omniscience ;  it  is  true  that 
the  Fourth  Gospel  indistinctly  marks  the  termi- 
nation, and  in  some  places  the  character,  of  the 
utterances  of  Jesus,  while  the  other  three  mark 
off  the  utterances  with  the  precision  of  a  ste- 
nographer ;  and  yet  the  Fourth  Gospel  is  more 
exact  in  chronological  details  than  the  other 
three ;  it  shows,  as  they  do  not,  the  develop- 
ment of  the  hostility  which  at  length  culmi- 
nated in  the  crucifixion  ;  it  presents  a  religious 
philosophy  of  which  they  are  deficient ;  the 
Fourth  Gospel  not  only  records  the  life,  but 
also  interprets  the  life,  as  the  best  biographies 
of  even  human  subjects  have  ever  done.  The 
Fourth  Gospel  has  a  message,  charged  with 
spiritual  insight,  adapted  to  human  need,  which 
is  largely  self -evidencing,  and  is  supplementary 
to  the  annals  of  the  Synoptists. 

1  See  John  i.  50 ;  ii.  25. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

A  GENERAL  VIEW  OF  THE  SOURCES. 

From    the    foregoing    examination    of    the 
sources  of  the  life  of  Jesus,  we  have  seen  that 
if  all  Christian  believers,  all   Christian    institu- 
tions, all  Christian  writings,  and  all  special  ad- 
vocates of  Christianity  in  all  the  centuries,  were 
swept  out  of  existence,  yet  there  would  remain 
of  heathen  and   Jewish  witnesses   sufficient  to 
establish,   as    perfectly   historical,   the  life  and 
death  and  wonderfully  widespread  influence  of 
a  personage  in  Judea,  in  the  reign  of  Tiberius, 
and  during  the  procuratorship  of  Pontius  Pilate, 
who  bore  the  name  of  Christ.     Very  early  in 
the  second  century  Roman  historians  and  Ro- 
man officials,  and  a  little  later  even  a  Roman 
satirist,  take  cognizance  of  him  and  of  his  influ- 
ence upon  his  followers  as  striking  phenomena 
among  the  people,  and  presenting  weighty  prob- 
lems in  government. 

Although  a  Jewish  philosopher,  a  Jewish  an- 
nalist, and  Jewish  ecclesiastics,  whom  we  exam- 
ine, fail  to  contribute  complete  or  satisfactory 
193 


194     INTRODUCTION   TO    THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS. 

evidence  concerning  the  Christ,  yet  they  say 
and  imply  sufficient  to  make  his  place  and 
influence  in  relation  to  them  perfectly  intel- 
ligible in  its  historic  setting  as  elsewhere  de- 
scribed. 

Of  Christian  witnesses  we  have  a  vast  store. 
Even  the  rocky  walls  of  the  Catacombs  bear 
early  and  unambiguous  testimony  to  the  main 
features,  the  extraordinary  influence,  and  the 
supreme  significance  of  that  life,  which  reached 
unto  thousands  of  all  classes  of  earth,  and  also 
extended  even  beyond  death,  sustaining  the 
persecuted,  and  fortifying  the  tortured. 

Wonderfully  the  Gospels  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment canon  are  brought  into  prominence.  All 
Christian  witnesses  point  to  them.  They  have 
scarcely  a  rival.  The  so-called  apocryphal  Gos- 
pels are  so  grotesque  and  absurd  as  hardly  to 
come  into  comparison.  By  contrast  the  apoc- 
ryphal writings,  however,  but  render  the  purity, 
simplicity,  modest  self-restraint,  and  credibility 
of  the  Gospels  the  more  apparent.  Remark- 
able is  it  that  outside  of  these  Gospels  so  little 
is  contributed  of  the  details  of  Christ's  life. 
Of  his  sayings  there  are  a  few  which  may  be 
looked  upon  with  a  good  degree  of  credence ; 
but  none  of  them  are  especially  significant  as 
compared  with  his  sayings  written  in  the  Gos- 


A   GENERAL    VIEIV  OF   THE  SOURCES.     195 

pels.       Of    his    deeds    scarcely  an    incident    of 
importance  is  suggested. 

The  early  Christian  writers  point  not  to 
themselves,  but  to  the  Gospels,  and  the  apos- 
tles, and  the  Christ.  Those  nearest  to  the 
apostles  in  time  still  recognize  themselves  as 
far  removed  in  eminence  and  authority,  because 
the  apostles  had  associated  with  the  Christ,  as 
they  themselves  had  not.  To  the  Fathers  the 
Gospels  early  became  the  standard  of  narration 
of  the  details  of  the  life  of  Christ.  Justin 
Martyr,  before  the  middle  of  the  second  cen- 
tury, employs  these  Gospels  under  the  name 
Memoirs  of  the  Apostles.  His  pupil,  Tatian, 
combines  them  into  a  single  narrative,  called 
the  Diatcssaron.  Before  the  time  of  Justin, 
Polycarp,  Ignatius,  Clement  of  Rome,  and  the 
writers  of  the  documents  known  as  The  Epistle 
of  Barnabas,  and  The  Teaching  of  the  Twelve 
Apostles,  used  the  language  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment in  a  manner  to  imply  quotation  from  a 
written  source.  Later  in  the  second  century, 
in  the  time  of  Tertullian  and  Irenccus,  the  Gos- 
pels are  quoted  almost  entire,  and  arc  described 
as  alone  authoritative,  as  divinely  appointed,  as 
essential  in  number,  and  clearly  apostolic  ;  and 
through  the  intimate  acquaintance  of  Irennpus 
with  Polycaqi,  who  had  sat  at  the  feet  of  John, 


196     INTRODUCTION  TO   THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS. 

this  testimony  really  reaches  back  beyond  the 
second  century  into  the  first,  and  in  substance 
sets  forth  the  testimony  of  both  Polycarp  and 
John.  Through  Irenseus  we  have  an  unbroken 
chain  of  witnesses  back  into  the  very  apostolic 
group. 

By  our  investigation  we  have  learned  that 
the  four  Gospels,  issuing  from  men  of  the  first 
century,  actually  present  in  every  case  the  testi- 
mony of  men  who  were  associated  with  Christ 
during  the  years  of  his  public  ministry.  Even 
the  Gospel  of  Luke,  which  rests  upon  the  sanc- 
tion of  Paul,  was  drawn  from  earlier  sources, 
doubtless  apostolic.  Matthew  assumes  great 
prominence  as  a  witness  because  of  his  written 
Aoyta,  which  in  all  probability  the  other  Synop- 
tists  employed  ;  and  of  the  Greek  Gospels,  now 
in  hand,  undoubtedly  Mark's  reproduces  most 
closely  the  form  of  this  original  work  of 
Matthew. 

While  the  coincidences  and  peculiarities  of 
the  first  three  Gospels  present  a  problem,  they 
also  afford  an  assurance.  The  coincidences  are 
sufficient  in  number  and  character  to  establish 
essentially  one  harmonious  account  of  the  sub- 
stance of  the  life  of  Christ.  The  divergences 
are  such  as  would  distinguish  separate  witnesses 
who  have  added,  each  his  own  personality,  to 


A   GENERAL    VIEIV  OF   THE  SOURCES.       197 

the  substance  of  the  common  source.  While 
we  cannot  enumerate  all  the  separate  witnesses 
who  speak  to  us  through  the  four,  yet  we  have 
learned  sufficient  to  name  at  least  the  following  : 
Matthew,  Peter,  John,  Mark,  Luke,  and  Paul. 
Instead  of  four,  therefore,  we  really  listen  in 
the  Gospels  of  the  New  Testament  to  many 
witnesses,  six  of  whom  we  can  definitely  name. 
Can  any  one  who  follows  but  this  one  line  of 
testimony  still  ask  whether  Jesus  Christ  ever 
lived  at  all .''  When  in  exile  on  the  island 
of  St.  Helena,  the  great  warrior,  with  whose 
doubting  query  I  began  my  first  chapter,  de- 
clared his  later  conviction  in  these  words,  "  The 
Gospel  is  not  a  book  ;  it  is  a  living  being,  with 
an  action,  a  power  ; "  and  he  added,  "  The  soul 
can  never  go  astray  with  this  book  for  its 
guide."  But  whether  warrior,  statesman,  phi- 
losopher, poet,  or  philanthropist  yield  to  the 
evidence  for  the  life  of  Christ  or  not,  must  not 
he  who  employs  historical  methods,  and,  free 
from  the  bias  of  foregone  conclusions,  examines 
patiently  the  multiplicity  of  the  testimony  from 
the  past,  acknowledge  the  existence  of  the  his- 
toric Christ  and  the  essential  truthfulness  of 
the  accounts  in  the  New  Testament  which  set 
forth  the  details  of  that  life.'* 


INDEX. 


Abbot,  Ezra,  on  the  Fourth  Gos- 
pel, 131,  1S5. 

Abbott,  E.  A.,  86,  155,  161. 

Abgarus,  reputed  correspondence 
with  Jesus,  72-75. 

Acts  of  the  Apostles,  The,  157-159, 
166. 

Agrapha,  72-82. 

Agrippa  II.,  49- 

Alaric,  date  of  taking  Rome,  62. 

Albinus,    mentioned   by   Josephus, 

52- 

Ambrosias  of  Alexandria,  gives  A 
True  Discourse  to  Origen,  35. 

Ambrosius  of  Milan,  quotes  Jose- 
phus, 54. 

Ananus,  mentioned  by  Josephus,  52. 

Antc-Nicene  Fathers,  96. 

Antoninus  Pius,  130. 

Apelles,  quoted  by  Iii)iiihanius,  78; 
gospel  of,  89. 

Apocalypse,  The,  referred  to  in  The 
Shepherd  of  Hermas,  134;  com- 
pared with  the  F'ourth  Gospel, 
177,  189,  191. 

Apocalypse  of  Peter,  The,  83. 

Apocrypha  of  the  New  Testament, 
described,  66-71  ;  evidential 
value  of,   194. 

Apocryphal  Gospels,  71. 

Apologetic  Fathers,  defined,  96; 
contributions  of,  101-103. 

Apostolic  Fatlicrs,  writings  of,  96- 
101. 


Arabic  Gospel  of  the  Saviour's  In- 
fancy, The,  71. 

Arctas,  mentioned  by  Josephus,  49. 

Athenagoras,  150. 

Atonement,  The,  in  the  ajiostolic 
teaching,  120. 

Augustine's  solution  of  the  synop- 
tic problem,  154. 

Authenticity  defined,  187. 

Avenging  of  the  Saviour,  The,  71. 

Barnabas,  The  Epistle  of,  thought 
to  contain  a  saying  of  Jesus,  77 ; 
described,  99;  its  date,  and  tes- 
timony to  the  New  Teslamcnt, 
'35-'37.  'gS- 

Biisilidcs,  89,  150. 

Haur,  F.  C,  on  Lucian's  "  Pere- 
grinus,"  28;  on  The  Gospel  at- 
cor  din f;  to  the  Heln-nvs.  84 ,  85 ; 
the  Tendency-theory  of,  113. 

Bensley,  R.  L. ,  90. 

Bernard,  J.  H  ,  64. 

Bez.!:,  Codex,  contiins  unique  say- 
ings of  Jesus,  7*),  77. 

Hosio,  explorations  in  the  Cata- 
combs, 63. 

Rousset,  W.,  on  Justin  Martyr,  131. 

Brace,  G.  L.,  12. 

Bretschneider,  36. 

Brodribb,  W.  J.,  21. 

Bryennios,  Philotheos,  77,  147. 

Caius  Julius  Cxsar,  36. 
Candish,  J.  S.,  72. 


199 


200 


INDEX. 


Canon  of  the  New  Testament,  the 
Church  Fathers  on,   103,  125- 

151.  194- 

Cassel,  W.  R.,  on  the  Diatessaron 
of  Tatian,  129. 

Catacombs,  The,  testimony  of,  61- 
65,  194- 

Celsus,  reported  by  Origen,  35-38, 
43 1  59!  uses  the  Gospels,  88; 
describes  Jesus,  102. 

Cerinthus,  89,  150. 

Charteris,  24,  81,  127. 

Chrestus,  used  for  Christus,  27. 

Christianity,  causes  of  spread  of, 
13  ;  entered  Rome,  47. 

Christians,  number  of ,  11,  123;  not 
distinguished  from  Jews,  27,  48 ; 
persecutions  of,  19,  22,  46,  148, 
i6s- 

Clarke,  J.  F.,  61. 

Claudius,  expelled  Jews  from  Rome, 
26. 

Clement  of  Alexandria,  33 ;  gives 
unrecorded  sayings  of  Jesus,  78, 
79,  80 ;  reports  a  command  of 
Jesus  to  his  disciples,  102  ;  on 
the  Canon,  127,  128 ;  on  author- 
ship of  Acts,  158. 

Clement  of  Rome,  20,  79,  87,  195 ; 
Epistle  of,  described,  97;  testi- 
mony to  the  Canon,  147-149. 

Clementine  Homilies,  contain  unre- 
corded sayings  of  Jesus,  78,  80 ; 
described,  87;  statements  of, 
concerning  Jesus,  102. 

Conservatism  of  Peter  and  Mark, 
•73- 

Constantine,  62. 

Conybeare  and  Howson,  20,  107, 
166,  179. 

Credner,  134. 

Cross,  J.  A.,  183. 

Damasus,  Pope,  i26« 
De'  Rossi,  62,  63, 


Diatessaron,  The,    of   Tatian,    8g, 

195;  described,  129. 
Didymus,  79. 
Diocletian,  42. 
Diognetus,  Epistle  to,  98. 
Dionysius  of  Corinth,  150. 
Docetae,  84. 

Dods,  Marcus,  130,  135,  154,  186. 
Doellinger,  134. 
Domitian,  26,  43. 
Donaldson,  James,  36,  131,  137. 
Douglas,  Professor  J.  A.,  on   The 

Unknown   Life  0/  Christ,  94, 

95- 
Dutch  critics,  school  of,  104. 

Ebionites,  The  Gospel  of  the,  86. 

Edersheim,  44,  54. 

Edicts  against  Christians,  42. 

Egyptians,  The  Gospel  according  to 
the,  89. 

Eichhorn,  on  the  Original-Docu- 
ment Theory,  154. 

Enoch,  The  Book  of,  83. 

Epiphanius,  gives  unrecorded  say- 
ings of  Jesus,  78 ;  on  The  Gos- 
pel of  the  Ebionites,  86 ;  quotes 
Marcion,  88;  on  the  Canon, 
126,  128;  on  the  Hebrew  Mat- 
thew, 162. 

Eusebius,  20,  33  ;  on  the  report  of 
Pontius  Pilate,  40,  41 ;  quotes 
Hegesippus  concerning  the 
grandsons  of  Jude  before  Do- 
mitian, 43  ;  on  Philo,  44,  46 ;  on 
Josephus,  53,  54;  on  corre- 
spondence between  Jesus  and 
Abgarus,  72-75  ;  on  The  Gospel 
of  Peter,  83,  84 ;  on  the  Canon, 
126,  127,  128 ;  quotes  Papias, 
131,  162,  167  ;  on  The  Epistle  of 
Barnabas,  136;  quotes  the  Mar- 
tyrdom of  Poly  carp,  141;  pre- 
serves the  correspondence  be- 
tween   Irenaeus  and    Florinus, 


INDEX. 


201 


139;  on  the  Gospel  of  Luke, 
158,  160;  on  the  Gospel  of 
Matthew,  162,  166;  on  the  Gos- 
pel of  Mark,  167. 
Extra-Biblical  Sayings  of  Jesus,  72- 
82. 

Farrar,  F.  W.,  12,  14,  81,90,92; 
on  Josephus,  51,  52,  57,  59;  on 
the  Apostle  Paul,  106,  107. 

Fathers,  The,  of  the  Church,  96-103. 

Fisher,  G.  P.,  86. 

Florinus,  139. 

F'ourth  Gospel,  The,  126,  127,  131; 
especially  attested  through  Poly- 
carp,  140;  the  probU.m  of,  and 
method  of  investigation,  177- 
192  ;  date  of,  191. 

Fuller,  J.  M.,  129. 

Galerius,  42. 

Genuineness,  defined,  187,  188. 

Gibbon,  13,  21. 

Gibson,  Mrs.,  89. 

Gieseler,  155. 

Gladden,  Washington,  on  inspira- 
tion, 1 17. 

Godet,  on  the  Epistle  to  the  Ro- 
mans, 27,  47  ;  on  Paul's  visit  to 
Jerusalem,  179;  on  the  Gospel 
of  John,  185. 

Gospels,  The,  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, their  general  character, 
109-115;  to  be  treated  as  his- 
toric documents,  1 16-124;  time 
of  their  composition,  125-151; 
mutual  relations,  152-191. 

Gospels,  once  current,  now  lost,  83- 
88. 

Gospel,  The,  to  the  Hebrews,  78, 
80. 

Gospel,  The,  of  the  Nativity  of 
Mary,  67. 

Gospel,  The,  of  Peter.  83. 

Gospel,  The,  of  Thomas,  68-70. 

Griesbach,  152. 


Hackett,  H.  B.,  158. 
Hadrian,  26,  34,  64. 
Harnack,  Adolph,  77,  84,  129. 
Harris,  J.  Rendel,  84,  90,  129. 
Heathen   sources,    19,   193  ;   quoted 

witnesses,  32. 
Hebrews,  The  Gospel  according  to 

the,  84,  86. 
Hegesippus,    on    Jude's  grandsons 

before  Domitiaii,  43. 
Hemphill,  S.,  64. 
Herder,  9. 

Hermas,  The  Shepherd  of,  de- 
scribed,  99-101 ;    testimony  to 

the  Gospels,  133-135. 
Herod  the  Tetrarch,  mentioned  by 

Josephus,  49-52. 
Hill,  D.  J.,  13. 
Hill,  J.  H.,  129. 
Historic  conditions  of  the  Gospels, 

116-124,  151. 
Holmes,  O.  W.,  11. 
Holtzmann,  107,  134. 
Holy  Spirit,  The,  85,  120,  121. 
Hone,  66. 
Home,  163,  167. 
Horton,  R.  F.,  124. 

Ignatius,  caricatured  by  Lucian, 
28;  reports  an  unrecorded  say- 
ing of  Jesus,  80;  epistles  of,  de- 
scribed, 133,  137,  142-145,  195. 

Immaculate  conception,  the  doc- 
trine of,  affected  by  the  Syriac 
version  of  the  Gospels,  92. 

Incarnation,  The  Syriac  Gospels  on, 
91,92. 

Ince,  W.,  92. 

Inspiration  of  the  Gospel  record, 
116-124,  133. 

Irenaeus,  20;  quotes  Papias,  81; 
quotes  the  Valentimans,  loj ; 
on  the  Canon.  iiS,  135.  t38-i4i, 
195,  196;  a  pupil  of  Polycarp, 
138-141 ;  00  Luke,  158,  160;  oo 


202 


INDEX. 


a   Hebrew   Matthew,    162-167; 
on   Mark,    168;   on  the  Fourth 
Gospel,  140,  191. 
Isidorus,  54. 

James,  brother  of  Jesus,  53. 

James,  Epistle  of,  108,  134. 

James,  the  Protevangelium  of,  71. 

Jerome,  on  Philo,  46;  on  Josephus, 
54  ;  reports  an  unrecorded  say- 
ing of  Jesus,  80;  on  The  Gos- 
pel of  Peter,  83,  84;  on  the 
Canon,  125,  128;  on  The  Epistle 
0/  Barnabas,  136 ;  on  a  Hebrew 
Matthew,  162. 

Jesus,  as  described  by  Celsus,  36; 
apocryphal  lives  of,  66-71,  92- 
95  ;  alleged  correspondence  with 
Abgarus,  72-75 ;  writings  of, 
75,  76;  Extra-Biblical  sayings 
of,  76-82,  194;  sayings  of,  re- 
ported by  Mohammedan  wri- 
ters, 81 ;  sayings  of,  in  New  Tes- 
tament, fragmentary,  110;  works 
of,  hi;  influence  of,  iii,  112; 
incarnation  of,  91,  92 ;  resurrec- 
tion of,  97,  107,  120;  life  of ,  as 
described  by  Paul,  105-108 ;  can- 
not be  fully  comprehended,  if 
divine,  113-115;  prophecy  of, 
161;  messianic  consciousness, 
192. 

Jewish  sources,  44,  193. 

Jews,  expelled  from  Rome,  27. 

John  Baptist,  mentioned  by  Jose- 
phus, 49.  5°.  51.  52- 

John,  Epistles  of,  108,  188,  189,  191. 

John,  Gospel  of,  126,  127,  131;  es- 
pecially attested  through  Poly- 
carp,  140;  the  problem  of,  and 
method  of  investigation,  177- 
192;  Professor  Riddle  on,  177; 
Dr.  Sears  on,  178;  is  supple- 
mentary to  the  synoptics,  178; 
related  to  Luke,  178-183;   re- 


lated to  Matthew,  183-185;  re- 
lated to  Paul's  writings,  184 ; 
Rev.  J.  A.  Cross  on  the  the- 
ology of,  183  ;  internal  evidence 
of,  190;  external  evidence  of, 
191 ;  unique  features  of,  192 ; 
date  of,  191. 

Joseph,  The  Narrative  of,  71. 

Joseph,  the  Carpenter,  The  History 
of,  71. 

Josephus,  his  time,  49;  testimony 
concerning  John  the  Baptist, 
49-52;  Dean  Farrar  on,  51,  52, 
57,  59;  testimony  concerning 
James,  the  brother  of  Jesus,  52, 
53;  testimony  concerning  Jesus, 
53-59 ;  genuineness  of  his  testi- 
mony, 54-59- 

Justin  Martyr,  27,  28 ;  on  the  report 
of  Pontius  Pilate,  40 ;  gives  an 
unrecorded  saying  of  Jesus,  79; 
gives  unrecorded  details  in  the 
life  of  Jesus,  loi ;  his  writings, 
and  testimony  to  the  Canon, 
129-131,  19s;  his  testimony  to 
the  Fourth  Gospel,  131,  191. 

Keim,  35. 

Kingdom    of    God,   the  burden  of 

Christ's    preaching,    as   shown 

by  Paul,  107. 

Ladd,  G.  T.,  124,  133. 

Lange,  47. 

Lardner,  on  Josephus,  54,  55. 

Leo,  Pope,  129. 

Lessing,  suggested  the  Original- 
Document  theory,  154. 

Lewis,  Mrs.,  89. 

Lightfoot,  Bishop,  27,  28,  131,  137, 
185  ;  on  The  Sliepherd  0/  Her- 
inas,  134;  on  Polycarp,  138;  on 
the  Ignatian  Epistles,  143  ;  on 
Paul's  visit  to  Jerusalem,  179. 

Li^sius,  86,  88 ;  on   The  Gospel  of 


INDEX. 


203 


ApelUs,  8<);  on  the  Ignati.in 
Epistles,  143. 

Lock,  W.,  76. 

J^gia  of  Matthew,  162,  163,  171, 
•75- 

I^ord's  Supper,  The,  described  sim- 
ilarly by  Luke  and  Paul,  161. 

Lucian,  liis  testimony  to  Jesus,  28- 
30.  "7' 

Luke,  Gosiiel  of,  126;  in  the  Mura- 
torian  Canon,  127;  relation  to 
Matthew  and  Mark,  153;  rela- 
tion to  Acts,  157;  date  of  com- 
position, 159,  169;  related  to 
Paul,  159-161,  171,  172,  174, 
196;  related  to  John,  178-182. 

Mair,  Alexander,  9. 

Marcion,  the  theology  of,  87 ;  the 
Gospel  of,  88. 

Marcus  Aurelius,  28,  43. 

Margoliouth,  Professor,  81. 

Mark,  Gospel  of,  in  the  Muratorian 
Canon,  127 ;  testimony  of  Pa- 
pias  to,  131,  167-169;  time  of 
composition,  169 ;  related  to 
Peter,  167-169,  173,  175,  176; 
relation  to  the  other  synoptics, 
153,  196. 

Marsh,  Bishop,  154. 

Massie,  J.,  135. 

Matthew,  Gospel  of,  84,  126,  127; 
testimony  of  Papias  to,  131, 
162  ;  a  Hebrew  Matthew,  162- 
165,  170-172,  174,  175,  196;  date 
of,  165-167,  169;  relation  to 
Mark  and   Luke,   153. 

Matthias,  The  Gosj>el  of,  89. 

McOiffert,  Professor,  54,  74,  75, 
>32- 

M'Clymont,  J.  A.,  179. 

Mechanical  inspiration,  Theory  of, 
"7.  "2J- 

Melito,  150. 

Memoirs,  The  Gospels  are,  109 ;  of 


the  Apostles,  cited  by   Justin, 

'30i   "45 
Millennium,  described   by    Papias, 

81. 
Milman,  Dean,  21. 
Moltammedan       quotations       from 

Jesus,  8i. 
MiUler,  W.,  33. 
Moore,  E.  C,  189. 
Motive  for  writing  the  Gospels,  m. 
Mozley,  J.  R.,  35. 
Miillcr,  Max,  93,  94,  95. 
Muraton,  126. 

Muratorian  Canon,  127,  128,  134. 
Mutual-Dependence     theory,     154, 

169. 

Napoleon,  9,  197. 
Nero,  19,  20,  26. 

New  Testament,  time  of  composi- 
tion, 125-151. 
Nice,  Council  of,  96. 
Nicodemus,  The  (Jospel  of,  71. 
Notovitch,  Nicolas,  92-95. 
Numenius,  33,  34,  43. 

Old  T^tin  version,  150. 

Ural-Gospel  theor>',  155,  174,  175. 

Origen,  on  credibility  of  witnesses, 
17;  quotes  witnesses,  33,  34, 
35-38;  his  defence  of  Chris- 
tianity, 35,  38,  59,  88;  quotes 
Josephus,  53  ;  gives  unrecorded 
sayings  of  Jesus,  78,  79,  80; 
quotes  Tlu  Gos/tl  of  Peter, 
83;  on  the  Canon,  126,  118;  on 
The  Shff'luTii  0/  //frmas,  133; 
quotes  The  KfiistU  0/  Barna- 
bas, 136  ;  on  Paul's  praise  of  the 
Gospel  of  Luke,  160;  recog- 
nizes a  Hebrew   Matthew,  162. 

Original-Document  theory,  154. 

Osiander,  11 8. 

Paley,  179. 
PantJL-uus,  162. 


204 


INDEX. 


Papias,  on  the  Millennium,  8i ;  con- 
tributes no  details  to  the  life  of 
Jesus,  99 ;    his  time  and  wri- 
tings, 131,  132;  prefers  oral  tes- 
timony, 132,  148 ;   reference  to 
Matthew,    162 ;     reference     to 
Mark,  167;  speaks  of  presbyter 
John,  190. 
Partition    theories  of    the    Apoca- 
lypse, 189. 
Paul,  martyrdom  of,  20;  at  Rome, 
47,    158;    historical    character, 
106 ;  testimony  to  Christ,  107 ; 
association  with  Luke,  159,  160; 
reminiscences  of,  preserved  by 
Luke,  171,  172  ;  visit  to  Jerusa- 
lem, 179. 
Paul,  The  Epistles  of,  104-108. 
Peabody,  A.  P.,  131,  185 
Peregrinus,  a  character  in   Lucian, 

28,  29. 
Persecutions  of  Christians,  19,  22, 

46,  148,  165. 
Peshitto  version,  150. 
Peter,  at  Rome,  46,  166  ;  his  remi- 
niscences preserved   by   Mark, 
132,  167,  168,  173. 
Peter,  Epistles  of,  loS. 
Peter,  The  Gospel  of,  83. 
Philo,  44-48,  60. 
Phlegon,  34,  43. 
Photius,  46. 
Pius,  127,  134. 

Pliny,  his  time,  21,  26;  his  charac- 
ter,  21,   22;    his   testimony   to 
Christianity,  22-24,  56,  117. 
Plummer,  A.,  135,  i86. 
Polycarp,  28,  133  ;  his  time,  137  ;  his 
testimony  to  the  Gospels,  137, 
195;    his  connection   with    the 
apostles,  139-142,  191  ;  teacher 
of  Irenaeus,  138,  139. 
Pontius   Pilate,    19,   31,  34,  43,  54, 
123.  193 ;  alleged  report  to  Ti- 
berius concerning  Jesus,  39-42 ; 


apocryphal  writings  ascribed  to, 

7'- 
Post-Nicene  Fathers,  96. 
Prophecy  on  the  lips  of  Jesus,  161. 
Protevangelium,  The,  of  James,  71. 
Pseudo-Matthew,  Gospel  of,  71. 
Pseudonymous  writings,  72. 
Purves,  G.  T.,  131. 

Quotation,  elements  of  uncertainty 
in,  32  ;  extent  of,  by  apologists, 

lOI. 

Quoted  witnesses,  Numenius,  33, 
34;  Phlegon,  34,  35;  Celsus, 
35-38,  43- 

Ramsay,  Professor,  179. 

Reith,  130. 

Renan,  28,  54,  113,  157. 

Resch,  A.,  76. 

Resurrection,    The,    of    Jesus,   97, 

107,  120. 
Revelation,  The  Book  of,  134,  i8g, 

191. 
Riddle,  M.  B.,  87,  177. 
Romans,  Epistle  to,  27,   106,    107, 

166. 
Rome,  origin  of  church  in,  47. 
Rushbrooke  and   Abbott  on   "  the 

triple  tradition,"  155. 

Salmon,  Professor,  33,  86,  87,  186. 

Sanday,  Professor,  47,  152,  158,  179. 

Scantiness  of  Gospel  record,  109. 

Schaff,  P.,  9.  54,61,  118. 

Schmidt,  Professor,  12. 

Schwegler,  84. 

Sears,  E.  H.,  178,  180,  182. 

Serapion,  84. 

Severus,  127. 

Shepherd,  The,  of  Hennas,  de- 
scribed, 100;  date,  133;  testi- 
mony to  Gospels,  134,  135. 

Sieffert,  F.,  179. 

Simcox,  W.  H.,  189. 


INDEX. 


205 


Sinaitic  Codex,  77,  ij6. 

Smith,  R.  T.,  137- 

Smith,  VV.,  87. 

Stevens,  G.  B.,  184. 

StoiTS,  R.  S.,  la. 

Strauss,  iij. 

Stuckenberg,  J.  H.  W.,  9. 

Suetonius,    refers    to    "  Chreslus," 
26,  27;  as  a  witness,  30,  117. 

Suidas,  on  Philo,  ^0. 

Synoptic,  derivation  of  the  word,  1 52. 

Synoptic    Gospels,   The,    152,    176, 

18s,  iQi- 
Synoptic  Problem,  The,  sUted,  153 ; 
Mutual-Dependence  theory,  154, 
169 ;  Original-Uocument  theory, 
154;  Oral-Gospel  theory,  155. 
•  74i  >75;  ''"  historic  problem, 
156-176. 
Syriac  Gospel,  discovered,  8<);  date 
and  character,  90;  variations 
from  the  Greek  Gospels,  90  ;  on 
the  immaculate  conception,  91, 
92. 

Tacitus,  his  time,  19,  20,  56;  his 
testimony  to  Christ  and  Chris- 
tianity, 19;  his  character  as  a 
witness,  21,  30,  117. 
Talmud,  The,  date  and  character, 
59;  references  to  Jesus,  59,  60. 
Tatian,  89,  191 ;  the  Dialessaron  of, 

129,  195- 
Taylor,    C,   on    7"A^   Shepherd   0/ 

Hertnas,  135. 
Tendency-theories,  113-115. 
TertuUian,  20;  on  the  report  of 
Pilate,  40,41;  preserves  Mar- 
cion's  Gospel,  88  ;  his  time,  127  ; 
testimony  to  the  Gospels,  12S, 
195  ;  used  the  Old  Latin  version, 
150;  on  the  authorship  of  Luke 
and  Acts,  158;  on  Paul's  con- 
nection with  the  Gospel  of 
Luke,   160. 


Testimony,    validity    of    Christian, 
16;    value    of   indirect,    32,   43  i 
limitations  of,  114. 
Theophilus  of  Antioch,  150. 
Theodoret,  83. 
i'homas,  The  apocryphal  Gospel  of, 

68-71. 
Tiberius,   19,  21,  31,   U3,    '93'.    «- 

port  of  Pilate  to,  3'y-42- 
Time  of  composition   of  the   Gos- 
pels, 125-151;  of  Matthew,  165- 
167,  169 ;  of  Mark,  169  ;  of  Luke, 
159,  169;  of  John,  191. 
Tischendorf,  76,  77. 
Trajan,    64;    correspondence   with 

Pliny,  21-25. 
Tregelles,  76. 
Triple  tradition.  The,  155. 
Trypho,  Dialogue  with,  130. 
Tubingen  School,  The,  105,  113. 

Uhlhorn,  12. 

Unknown  Life,  The,  of  Christ,  9»- 

95- 

Valentinians,   cited   by    Irena;us, 

103. 
Valentinus,  150. 
Valerian,  62. 
Vaughan.C.J.,  124- 
Venables,  Canon,  61. 
Verbal  inspiration,  117,  "3' 
Vulgate,  The,  125. 
Warburton,  Bishop,  on  Josephus, 

55- 
Watkins,  H.  W.,  17,  134,  «85- 
Weiss,  B»mard,  121,  161,  186;  ref- 
erence to  Tacitus,  19;  on  mod- 
ern criticism  and  the  Fourth 
Gospel,  36;  on  Osiander's  har- 
mony, 118;  on  Paul's  phrase, 
"my  gospel,"  160;  on  Mat- 
thew's Gospel,  163,  164,  166; 
on  Paul's  visit  to  Jerusalem, 
«79- 


206 


INDEX. 


Wellhausen,  Professor,  on  date  of 
Jewish  war,  i66. 

Westcott,  Bishop,  36,  86,  87,  107, 
log,  127,  133,  159,  186,  187;  on 
unl-ecorded  sayings  of  Jesus, 
77,  81 ;  an  estimate  of  Polycarp, 
138 ;  on  the  synoptic  problem, 

153.  '55- 
Westcott  and  Hort,  76. 
Wetzel,   G.,   on   Matthew's  lectur- 

ingi  "55- 


Wheeler,  C.  G.,  27. 

Whiston,  W.,  on  Josephus,  49,  54. 

Wieseler,  27. 
Wynne,  F.  R.,  64. 

Zahn,  T.,  on  Ignatius,  28;  on  Lu- 
cian's  language,  29 ;  on  The  Gos- 
Pelqf  Peter,  84. 

Zockler,  O.,  on  the  number  of  Chris- 
tians in  the  world,  12  ;  on  Mat- 
thew as  a  writer,  165. 


